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b  ^  "xBhi 


Plarfe  K?H  in  JKF&irinF 


ANNIVERSARY   ADDRESS 


JOHN  D.  JACKSON,  A.M.,  M.D 

Member  of  Ihe  Kentuckij  State  Medical  Society;  formerly  Vice-President  of  the 

American  Medical  Association;  Uonorary  Member  of  the  California 

State  Medical  Society  and  of  the  Obstetrical  Society  of 

Louisville;     Corresponding    Member    of    the 

Gynecological  Society  of  Boston,  etc. 


EDITED    nV 

L.   S.   McMURTRY,  A.M.,  M.D 


CINCINNATI 

ROBERT    CLARKE    &    CO 

1880 


I 


The  Black  Arts  in  Medicine  was  originally  published 
in  pamphlet  form  for  private  distribution  by  the  au- 
thor, the  late  Dr.  John  D.  Jackson,  of  Danville,  Ken- 
tucky. 

The  highly  commendatory  notices  which  the  work 
received  from  the  press ;  the  numerous  demands  made 
for  it  by  members  of  the  profession  throughout  the 
United  States;  togetlier  with  a  valued  friendship  for 
the  author,  have  induced  the  publishers  to  issue  this 
second  edition  in  more  substantial  form.  It  is  believed 
that  the  subjects  discussed  herein,  though  furnishing  a 
familiar  theme  to  medical  writers  and  teachers,  have 
never  before  been  treated  in  such  attractive  and  pleasing 
style. 

An  address  delivered  upon  an  anniversary  occasion 
has  been  deemed  by  the  editor  a  worthy  companion 
of  the  essay  on  the  Black  Arts  in  Medicine  ;  and,  with 
some  unimportant  alterations,  is  appended. 


)|p  {plerh  Hris  in  ^pltirinp, 


Probably,  there  is  no  triter  axiom  in  our  language 
than,  that  *'  self-preservation  is  the  first  law  of  our 
nature."  Probably,  there  has  never  been  a  nation 
whose  civilization  advanced  to  the  construction  of 
even  a  rude  form  of  philosophic  thought  among  its 
people,  but  has  had  current  in  its  society,  an  adage 
embodying  under  some  form,  the  same  idea.  One 
of  the  most  powerful  and  beautiful  arguments  of  an- 
tiquity endeavoring  to  prove  the  existence  of  a  su- 
preme intelligence  in  the  creation  of  man,  which 
has  come  down  to  us,  is  in  one  of  those  Socralic 
dialogues,  in  which  the  different  members  of  the 
body  are  considered  with  reference  to  their  respective 
functions,  each  being  shown  to  be  so  admirably 
adapted  to  the  preservation  of  the  integrity  of  the 
entire  being.  This  primal  law  is  so  plainly  deline- 
ated on  the  face  of  nature,  that  it  would  be  wonder- 
ful had  it  not  been  so  commonly  seen.  But,  while 
we  all  admit  this  prime  fact,  the  whole  world  does 

C5) 


6  Win  Blacfe  ^rts 

not  so  clearly  see  its  corollaries.  There  are  a 
thousand  streams  of  human  action,  meandering 
through  the  shadowy  coverts  of  the  social  life  of 
the  world,  which  when  traced  up  to  their  fountain, 
are  seen  to  spring  from  this  principle. 

The  great  struggle  for  life,  is  indeed  not  that  of 
the  present  living  world  alone,  but  in  the  ages  of 
the  past,  as  revealed  to  us  through  geological  dis- 
coveries, traces  of  a  universal  war  for  existence, 
are  as  plainly  marked,  as  in  the  living  world  of  to- 
day. 

This  instinct  in  man,  as  the  highest  reasoning 
animal,  exhibits  itself  under  a  somewhat  different 
phase,  to  the  form  of  it  developed  in  the  brutes ; 
for  after  exhausting  all  natural  aids,  the  principle 
of  preservation  causes  him  to  appeal  to  the  super- 
natural for  assistance.  That  carter  of  classical 
fable,  who  when  his  horses  failed  him,  appealecj  to 
Hercules  for  help,  is  but  a  type  of  the  actual  man 
of  the  world  of  all  ages,  past  and  present. 

To  this  principle,  we  owe  the  superstition  of  our 
nature,  a  superstition,  which  at  one  time  or  another, 
has  infused  itself  into  all  three  of  the  learned  pro- 
fessions, and  more  particularly  into  our  own,  in 
which  to-day,  a  close  scrutiny  will  show  a  few  lin- 
gering traces. 

Until  a  few  centuries  ago,  the  Black  Arts  were 


intimately  interwoven  into  the  fabric  of  medical 
practice,  so  that  it  would  have  been  perfectly  in  ac- 
cordance with  the  spirit  of  truth,  to  have  para- 
phrased the  inscription  common  over  the  doorways 
of  the  Pythagorean  Schools  of  Philosophy  in  an- 
cient Greece,  which  read,  "  Let  no  One  Igno- 
rant OF  Geometry  Enter  Here,"  and  have  in- 
scribed over  the  archway  opening  into  the  Temple 
of  Medicine,  Let  no  One  Ignorant  of  Astrol- 
ogy Enter  Here. 

The  doctor  of  the  period,  commenced  his  pre- 
scription with  an  invocation  to  Jupiter,  and  the 
"  split-foot  R,"  with  which  we  of  to-day  commence 
ours,  is  but  the  astronomical  sign  of  that  planet 
somewhat  distorted  in  its  journey  down  to  us  through 
ages,  as  any  one  can  ascertain  for  himself,  who  will 
take  the  trouble  of  consulting  a  modern  quack  al- 
manac, for  the  original  sign.  Then,  the  apothecary 
gathered  his  simples  according  to  rule,  by  the  wan- 
ing and  fulling  of  the  moon  ;  then,  the  physician 
consulted  the  twelve  signs  of  the  Zodiac,  and  pre- 
scribed and  prognosticated  as  Taurus,  Gemini  or 
Cancer,  were  in  the  ascendant;  it  was  then,  that 
having  failed  to  cure  by  the  use  of  such  disgusting 
farragoes,  as  would  certainly  require  some  ingenu- 
ity in  a  physician  of  now-adays  to  conceive,  that 
the  doctor   would   resort  to  prayers,  charms,  and 


8  JH^ht  Blacfe  ^rts 

verses.  If  any  one  will  consult  the  ^OBU.  ^Utjlfca 
of  John  of  Gaddesden,  an  authority  of  repute  in 
the  14th  century,  he  will  find  him  full  of  these 
charming  verses.  If  he  will  turn  to  his  chapter 
De  Passiojiibus  Auriiim*  he  will  find  that  after 
recommending  "  Urina  tauri  et  ca-pri  ijiveterata ;" 
and  centaury,  wormwood,  rue,  ants,  earth-worms, 
and  eels'  blood  boiled  in  wine,  which  he  says  is 
•without  an  equal  in  the  cure  of  deafness,  he  will 
find  him  concluding  by  giving  him  a  string  of  verses, 
which  he  declares  are  frequently  the  very  best  cure. 
It  was  in  these  times  that  amulets  and  charms  were 
worn,  and  philters  and  phylacteries  prescribed,  and 
the  saints  appealed  to  as  presiding  over  special  dis- 
eases, e.  g.,  St.  Anthony  over  inflammation,  and 
particularly  the  Erysipelas,  which,  as  we  know,  is 
called  St.  Anthony's-fire  to  this  day ;  St.  Vitus 
against  madness  and  poisons,  and  at  present  we 
know  Chorea  as  his  dance,  in  the  cure  of  which  he 
was  especially  appealed  to  ;  St.  Erasmus  was  called 
upon  for  the  cure  of  colic  ;  St.  Martin  invoked  against 
the  itch ;  St.  Phaire  against  haemorrhoids  ;  St. 
Q^uentin,  coughs  ;  St.  Benedict,  the  stone  ;  St.  John 
against  Epilepsy,  and  so  on  through  the  calendar. 


*  Rosa   Anglica — Imprint   of    Bonetus   Locatellus.     Venici, 
1516,  p.  115. 


It  was  then  that  Bezoars  were  sought  after,  and 
that  moss  from  the  skulls  of  dead  men  was  pre- 
scribed, and  the  thigh  bone  of  a  criminal  powdered, 
was  as  a  remedy,  held  in  high  repute  ;  and  then  it 
was,  that  the  blood  of  vipers,  the  expressed  juice 
of  millipedes,  the  white  end  of  peacock's  dung,  and 
other  such  delicate  things  were  daily  prescribed. 

But  if  we  of  modern  times,  living  in  an  age,  a 
characteristic  of  which  is,  that  it  is  essentially  ma- 
terial, can  congratulate  ourselves  that  necromancy 
is  no  longer  a  part  of  regular  medicine,  that  the 
doctor  of  to-day  is  not  expected  to  be  a  magician, 
that  familiarity  with  the  Black  Arts  is  not  an  inte- 
gral part  of  the  knowledge  of  scientific  medicine, 
yet  must  we  in  solemnity  and  shame  contemplate 
the  fact,  that  we  have  still  to-day  existing  in  our 
profession  as  Black  Arls  as  any  of  a  past  age.  It 
is  true  that  they  are  not  considered  to  belong  to 
med^icine  proper — it  is  true  that  their  practice  is  not 
considered  characteristic  of  the  true  representation 
of  modern  medical  science,  and  it  is  also  true,  that 
the  practitioners  of  said  arts,  are  held  in  supreme 
contempt  and  loathing,  by  all  true  disciples  of  the 
heaven-born  calling  ;  but  it  is  nevertheless  as  true, 
that  at  this  da}^  and  hour,  there  are  not  a  few  who 
manage  to  have  themselves  classed  with  tiie  true 
disciples,  who  in  secret  league  with   the  spirits  of 


10  sriie  mntl{  ^rts 

darkness,  cultivate  the  modern  Black  Arts  under 
cover,  with  the  greatest  assiduity  and  skill.  And 
finally,  it  is  furthermore  true,  that  with  such,  mem- 
bers of  the  goodly  company  whom  I  now  address, 
are  in  daily  intercourse,  and  are  compelled  to  meet 
as  equals  and  honorable  rivals  nominally,  certain 
devotees  whose  astute  skill,  whose  dexterous  prac- 
tice, and  successful  manipulations  in  the  line  indi- 
cated, render  them  worthy  of  high  positions  in  this 
dark  department  of  medicine. 

The  overcrowded  state  of  our  profession,  the  easy 
admission  without  proper  preparatory  learning,  or 
inquiry  into  their  moral  fitness,  of  all  desiring  to 
enter  our  ranks,  has  much  increased  the  numbers 
of  those  who  are  least  fitted  by  menial  and  moral 
training  to  resist  the  temptations  which  beset  all  of 
us  in  our  professional  rivalry,  in  our  eflxjrts  at  self- 
preservation,  in  our  struggle  for  existence,  in  ful- 
fillment of  the  first  law  of  our  nature ;  and  thus  it 
is,  that  the  land  lies  fallowed,  favoring  this  luxuri- 
ant crop  of  tares. 

In  a  sentence,  the  spirit  of  materialism  which 
rules  the  age,  has  destroyed  reliance  on  divinations, 
incantations  and  charms,  but  the  same  gross  spirit, 
has  inspired  a  reliance  on  certain  ingenious  devices 
for  gaining  notoriety,  and  certain  modes  of  acquir- 
ing the  patronage  of  the  world,  which  while  of  an 


Xn  -imetifcfnc.  n 

entirely  different  charncter,  are  infinitely  more  re- 
volting. It  must  have  been  from  a  contemplation 
of  this  phase  of  medical  life,  that  a  maHcious  Mo- 
liere  of  a  fellow  named  Saxby,  in  a  dispute  with 
Dr.  Mark  Akenside  on  the  dignity  of  medicine,  is 
said  to  have  replied  to  him  :  "  Doctor,  after  all  you 
have  said,  my  opinion  of  the  profession  is  this  :  the 
ancients  endeavored  to  make  it  a  science  and  failed  ; 
and  the  moderns  to  make  it  a  trade,  and  suc- 
ceeded." 

While  traveling  the  past  winter,  there  fell  in  our 
hands  a  somewhat  curious  document,  which  since  it 
well  paints  some  of  the  modern  phases  of  the  Black 
Arts  in  Medicine,  we  will  not  apologize  for  present- 
ing. How  it  came  into  our  possession,  and  the 
true  names  of  the  parties,  is  nobody's  business  but 
our  own,  sufficient  is  it  for  our  purpose  to  read  you 
the  following : 


12  Elu  Ulnclt  ^rts 


Letter  of  Dr.  Solomon  Machiavelli 
Sharpe,  A,  B,,  A,  M.,  M,  D.,  &€., 
&fc.,  to  yohn  Charlatan  Greene^ 
M,  D, 

JMy  Dear  John  : 

Your  epistle  of  recent  date,  has  been 
lying  before  me  'till  now,  unanswered.  You  tell 
me  that  to  the  time  of  writing,  you  look  on  yourself 
as  having  been  rather  unfortunate  in  the  profession 
which  vou  have  chosen  ;  the  world,  you  say,  does 
not  seem  to  recognize  3-our  merits,  and  that  you  are 
neglected,  while  you  see  around  you  men,  whom 
you  deem  far  your  inferiors,  not  only  patronized, 
but  in  some  instances,  taken  up  and  much  ado  made 
over  them.  About  all  of  which,  you  seem  much 
discouraged,  and  ask  now  for  some  advice,  as  to 
the  means  to  pursue,  by  which  most  certainly  to  se- 
cure you  business,  appealing  to  me,  as  "  a  success- 
ful doctor,  retired   after  a  forty  years   practice,"  to 


give   you   the   benefit   of  my  experienced   observa- 
tions. 

Now,  my  dear  John,  I  must  say  to  you,  that  I 
look  upon  3'our  failure  as  in  a  great  measure  attrib- 
utable to  the  defects  of  your  professional  education, 
though  that  as  my  sister's  son,  and  therefore  a  gen- 
uine chip  of  the  famil}^  block,  I  doubt  not,  but  that 
time  is  all  that  is  necessary,  to  see  you  of  your  own 
innate  instinctive  developments,  after  a  while 
"flourish  like  a  green  Bay,"  if  not  like  a  "  Cedar  of 
Lebanon."  I  could  predict  this  with  certainty,  were 
it  not  that  I  know  that  the  blood  of  the  Sharpes  has 
been  crossed  by  that  of  the  Greenes,  which,  though 
it  may  hinder  the  development  of  your  sharpness, 
yet  I  don't  think  it  will  prevent  the  final,  though  it 
may  possibly  be  a  little  slow,  maturation  of  the  pe- 
culiar characteristics  of  the  maternal  side  of  your 
house.  I  have  never  yet  known  a  true  Sharpe  fail 
from  lack  of  shrewdness,  or  from  neglecting  to 
make  the  most  of  an  opportunity,  or  to  be  hindered 
by  a  weak  modesty  from  boldly  pushing  his  way  on 
every  occasion  offering.  Now,  the  Greene's  I 
know  to  have  always  been  more  slow  to  appreciate 
their  own  merits,  and  I  suspect  that  you  inherit 
something  of  their  nature,  but  I  have  but  little 
doubt  but  that  after  awhile,  the  opposite  traits  which 
you  by  right  inherit,  will  finally  assert  themselves, 


14  ntht  asiacfe  ^rts 

and  I  know  of  nothing  more  calculated  to  bring 
them  to  the  surface  than  to  be  pushed  to  the  wall, 
to  see  as  j^ou  say  you  do,  others  around  you  flour- 
ishing, while  3'ou  are  starving.  Necessity,  I  have 
observed,  is  not  only  the  mother  of  invention,  but 
among  her  offspring,  we  may  certainly  place  the 
development  of  those  deeply  hidden  traits  of  char- 
acter, which  prosperity  does  not  always  bring  to  the 
surface. 

As  I  have  said  before,  I  attribute  your  failure 
to  the  deficiencies  of  your  medical  education.  Now, 
on  this  point,  I  hold  some  views,  which  are  entirely 
my  own,  and  these  are  they  : 

The  shorter  catechism  of  our  church  declares 
that  "The  chief  end  of  man,  is  to  glorify  God." 
If  I  were  to  make  a  medical  catechism,  I  should 
write  first  that — the  chief  end  of  the  doctor  is  to  get 
practice.  Well,  in  spite  of  this  cardinal  fact  star- 
ing everybody  in  the  face,  yet  I  do  n't  know  of  a 
single  medical  school  in  the  world,  bold  enough  to 
come  out  and  acknowledge  it.  What  I  mean  is 
this,  that  all  the  medical  colleges,  among  the  nu- 
merous chairs  founded  by  them,  and  their  name  is 
getting  to  be  legion  now,  for  at  some  places  they 
will  have  a  professor  to  lecture  to  you  on  the  eye, 
another  on  the  ear,  another  on  the  throat,  another 
on  the  skin,  another  on  the  kidneys,  and   even  a 


Kit  iUctiicfite.  15 

separate  lecturer  for  the  pox  and  clap  ;  but  I  do  n't 
know  a  single  college,  which  among  all  this  arra}'- 
has  had  the  good  sense  to  appoint  a  man  to  teach 
the  callow  brood,  whom  they  are  turning  from  their 
doors,  with  their  tender  pinions  ready  to  beat  the 
rude  blasts  of  the  world  for  the  first  time,  the  noble 
art  of  getting  practice  ;  and  if  asked  for  a  text- 
book or  monograph  on  this  important  subject,  the 
one  for  which  all  the  others  were  created — why  I 
could  n't  give  you  one. 

Now  there  are  two  stand-points  from  which  to 
consider  the  subject,  or  rather  on  a  consideration 
of  it,  there  are  two  phases  presented  to  view. 

Firstly,  a  man  can  acquire  the  confidence  of  his 
professional  brethren  and  the  patronage  of  the  pop- 
ulace, by  the  possession  of  a  thorough  knowledge 
of  his  calling,  by  being  a  really  learned  man  in 
his  profession,  knowing,  and  capable  of  applying, 
his  knowledge.  Some  by  such  possession,  though 
lacking  every  thing  exterior  and  beyond  this, 
which  might  be  deemed  inclined  to  promote  suc- 
cess, yet  succeed.  Their  success  may  be  looked 
upon  as  truly  meritorious,  for  they  seem  to  succeed 
as  it  were  by  the  mere  force  or  gravity.  Others 
there  are,  and  I  must  say  that  my  observation 
makes  them  outnumber  the  former  far,  who  suc- 
ceed from  just  the  opposite   direction.     Destitute  of 


iG  S'lie  Mlntli  ^rts 

all  truly  scientific  knowledge,  mere  smatterers,  and 
possessing  no  great  powers  at  best,  they  however 
make  up  for  lack  of  all  real  attainments,  by  the  cul- 
tivation of  those  little  principles  of  their  nature, 
which  to  a  certain  point  seem  to  serve  them  a  good 
part  instead.  The  same  thing  you'  can  observe,  if 
you  look  around  you,  in  politics.  You  may  fre- 
quently see  the  man  of  true  statesmanship  and  dig- 
nity, beaten  by  the  shallowest  of  politicians,  but 
who  has  cultivated  to  perfection  his  bushwhacking 
powers  of  shaking  hands,  and  honeyfuggling  '<  the 
dear  public." 

I  believe  that  the  class  I  have  first  mentioned, 
has  really  an  easier  time  in  reaching  the  goal,  than 
the  latter — and  this  reminds  me  of  an  observation 
I  once,  in  my  school-boy-days,  heard  a  fellow- 
make,  who  was  on  the  eve  of  graduating.  Said 
he  in  talking  to  some  of  us  junior  striplings  :  "Boys, 
I  am  about  graduating — I  have  passed  my  last  ex- 
amination, and  am  now  certain  of  my  Diploma, 
but  I  will  confess  to  you  all,  that  I  do  n't  know  a 
d — d  thing  about  what  I  have  gone  over.  You 
fellows,  doubtless,  wonder  how  I  have  managed  to 
get  through  ;  well,  I  will  say  to  you,  that  it  has  re- 
quired, I  think,  about  as  much  study  and  sharpness 
to  do  so  by  fooling  the  professors,  as  would  have  been 
equisite  to  have  thoroughly  mastered   the   college 


Xn  iiteliCcinc.  i7 

course."  As  all  animals  are  not  endowed  b}''  nature 
with  the  same  means  of  self-protection,  while  some, 
as  the  lion  and  tiger,  openly  and  boldly  seize  their 
prey,  and  attack  and  defend  themselves,  others,  as 
the  jackal  and  jaguar,  generally  do  so  sneakingly 
and  by  stealth  ;  while  others  still  less  blessed  with 
attacking  and  defensive  powers,  seem  to  have  all 
their  capacity  concentrated  in  cunning  and  decep- 
tion. So  have  I  observed  it  in  mankind,  where 
nature  has  not  done  much  for  a  fellow  in  the  ordi- 
nary way,  he  seems  to  sometimes  pretty  much  make 
it  up,  by  cultivating  all  the  little  shrewdnesses  of  his 
nature,  which  then  stand  him  entirely  instead,  and 
it  is  sometimes  a  wonder  how  far  the  intelligent  of 
the  public  are  ready  to  receive  such  transparently 
base  counters  for  genuine  coin.  Indeed,  this  weak- 
ness of  the  public,  I  have  known  sometimes  to  so 
overwhelm  professional  men  of  merit,  that  they 
have  yielded  to  the  temptation  to  utter  themselves 
the  readily  received  counterfeit,  rather  than  con- 
tinue the  painful  labors  of  the  strictly  professional 
workshop. 

Quackery  does  not  owe  its  spread  throughout  the 
world,  to  the  defects  of  medicine  as  a  science,  one 
tithe  so  much  as  to  the  innate  weakness  of  man- 
kind. Man  is  certainly  one  of  the  most  gullible 
of  animals ;  though  at  times  straining  at  gnats,  yet 


18  ^f\t  Mntlx  ^rts 

at  others  he"  readily  swallows  great  camels.  It  is 
not  in  medicine  simply,  that  popular  credulity  lies, 
it  is  equally  great  with  reference  to  the  other  pro- 
fessional callings.  Do  n't  you  recollect  that  clas- 
sical observation  of  Wallenstein  to  his  son,  when 
doubting  his  fitness  for  some  mission  imposed  upon 
him?  He  took  him  into  the  council-chamber,  and 
having  him  look  and  listen  for  awhile  at  certain 
shallow  representatives  of  the  nation's  greatness, 
exclaimed:  Observe  my  son,  '■''  quam  ■pauca  sapi- 
entia  regit  mundum"  Ever  keep  this  saying  in 
mind,  my  dear  John,  a  remembrance  of  it  will  fre- 
quently serve  you  a  good  purpose,  in  emboldening 
you  when  hesitating — do  n't  forget  the  weakness  of 
your  enemies,  or  rather  friends,  the  bi  noUoc. 

There 's  an  old  story,  which  in  some  form  or 
other,  has  long  been  current,  telling  of  a  London 
quack,  who  was  upbraided  by  a  doctor,  for  his  char- 
latanry, but  who  justified  himself  by  asking  the 
doctor,  of  the  thousand  men  who  daily  passed  his 
office,  how  many  he  supposed  were  really  intelli- 
gent and  of  sound  well  balanced  judgment ;  and 
upon  being  answered,  probably  one  in  the  hundred, 
replied,  "You  may  have  those  ten,  but  I  will  take 
the  nine  hundred  and  ninety  fools  for  my  patients, 
who  for  their  folly,  probably  deserve  to  be  quacked 
upon." 


It  is  related  of  a  certain  Scotch  3'^eoman,  that  he 
always  got  such  good  prices  for  his  cattle  on  taking 
them  to  market,  that  his  neighbors  were  totally  at  a 
loss  to  account  for  it,  but  one  day,  on  fuddling  him 
with  liquor,  after  much  cajoling,  he  finally  yielded 
them  up  the  secret  by  saying  :  "  On  going  to  sell 
my  beasties,  I  first  finds  a  fool^  and  then  I  shoves 
'em  on  to  him." 

It  is  well  for  3'ou  to  hold  in  remembrance  the 
general  fact,  that  the  world  is  largely  made  up  of 
fools,  John. 

''''Mais  nous  revenons  a  nos  moutons^''  which  is 
the  way  to  get  a  practice. 

Did  you  ever  read  the  celebrated  letter  to  Timo- 
thy Van  Bustle,  which  appeared  more  than  an  hun- 
dred years  ago,  and  was  at  the  time  attributed  to 
Dr.  Mead?  Knowing  that  it  is  most  probable  that 
you  have  not,  I  herewith  transcribe  a  part  of  it  for 
your  consideration,  for  though  it  is  more  than  an 
hundred  years  old,  the  men  of  to-day,  are  descended 
from  those  of  a  century  ago. 

'*  That  which  gives  me  great  hopes  of  you  (Dr. 
Timothy  Van  Bustle,  M.  D.),  is  your  resolution  to 
go  on,  and  to  push  into  practice  at  all  hazards. 
Monsieur  De  Rochf  observes,  that  there  is  nothing 
impossible,  if  we  have  but  the  resolution  to  take 
the  right  way  to  it.     Besides,  you  know  audaces 


20  3rhr  ISIacU  ^rts 

fortuna  juvat;  and  therefore  above  all  things  let 
me  as  a  friend  advise  you  to  take  care  of  studying, 
or  endeavoring  to  know  much  in  this  way,  since  that 
will  render  you  timorous  and  cautious,  and  conse- 
quently keep  you  back  in  your  practice  ;  besides 
that,  the  more  you  search  the  less  you  will  be  sat- 
isfied ;  and  when  arrived  at  the  top  of  all,  you  may 
with  Solon  conclude  that  all  your  wisdom  (com- 
paratively with  real  knowledge)  is  in  knowing 
nothing.  Whereas,  if  you  only  shim  the  surface, 
you  will  go  boldly  on  and  fancy  your  knowledge 
ten  times  more  than  what  it  really  is.  Thus,  then, 
the  great  and  principal  thing  you  ought  to  be  quali- 
fied with,  is  t\\Q  formula  ^rescribendi,  for  form  is 
now  the  main  chance,  whether  in  law  or  physic; 
and  without  that,  there  is  nothing  to  be  done ;  this 
is  the  business,  the  Alpha  and  Omega,  the  all  in 
all ;  some  will  succeed,  and  some  won't;  'tis  hit  or 
miss,  luck's  all;  you  are  paid,  go  which  way  you 
will.  And  now,  just  having  arrived  in  tovv^n,  with- 
out having  had  the  benefit  of  establishing  an  ac- 
quaintance at  Oxford  or  Cambridge,  among  the 
nobility,  clergy,  etc.,  and  an  absolute  stranger 
here,  without  the  assistance  of  dissenting  teachers, 
relations,  old  w-omen,  nurses,  children  or  apotheca- 
ries, the  first  thing  I  advise  you  to  do,  is  to  make 
all  the  noise  and  bustle  j-ou  can,  to  make  the  town 


Kit  ^cZiicfne.  21 

ring  of  you  if  possible  ;  so  that  every  one  in  it  may 
know  there  is  such  a  being,  and  in  town  too,  such 
a  physician.  It  signifies  little  which  way  it  be,  so 
it  be  done,  and  that  your  name  be  known  and 
heard  of,  for  that  is  half  in  half,  since  no  one  sends 
to  consult  him  they  have  not  heard  of,  that  being  a 
crime  sufficient  not  to  have  been  talked  of;  where- 
as, if  accustomed  to  your  name,  you  are  a  fit  per- 
son to  be  called  to  the  sick.  Thus  the  famous  R. 
F.,  'tis  said,  on  his  first  arrival,  had  half  the  por- 
ters in  tQwn,  employed  to  call  for  him  at  all  the 
coffee-houses  and  public  places,  so  that  his  name 
might  be  known.  A  very  famous  oculist  has  like- 
wise freely  told  me,  that  he  must  starve  did  he  not 
frequently  put  himself  in  the  public  prints  ;  but  this 
is  not  so  fashionable  with  physicians,  ready  to  their 
company,  or  that  while  they  think  their  company 
understands  the  best,  or  are  otherwise  so  com- 
plaisant, as  to  talk  to  their  friends  of  their  interest; 
for  I  would  suppose  3'ou  have  insinuated  yourself 
into  their  friendship.  Besides  that,  the  very  seeing 
you  now  and  then,  might  put  them  in  mind  of  that 
which  they  might  otherwise  forget.  The  old  and 
the  simple,  the  riotous,  the  whimsical,  and  the  fear- 
ful, are  your  most  proper  company,  and  who  will 
provide  you  with  most  business  ;  there  being  far 
less  to  be  got  by  the  wise  and  sober,  who  are  much 


22  mxt  Blactt  mvts 

more  rarely  ailing.  But  then  you  will  perhaps  tell 
me  that  such  like  physicians  will  be  the  most 
proper  to  please,  and  keep  company  with  such, 
since  similis  simili gaudet.  If  so,  then  I  can  only 
say,  those  will  probably  stand  the  fairest  for  busi- 
ness ;  and  if  you  are  so  wise  or  unwise  as  not  to 
ply,  bend  or  truckle  to  their  humors,  I  doubt  not 
you  will  be  in  danger  of  having  less  business  ;  or, 
otherwise,  if  you  would  still  continue,  and  be  es- 
teemed very  wise,  sober  and  grave,  you  should 
learn  most  obsequiously  to  fawn  and  sootlie  man, 
woman  and  child,  since  few  else  will  thrive  well, 
unless  blessed  with  wit,  in  which  case,  they  may 
be  allowed  a  little  more  liberty.  To  make  your- 
self known,  the  making  friends  for  some  public 
lectureship,  is  not  amiss,  which  serves  for  a  feather 
in  your  cap,  by  which  you  become  known,  and  so 
taken  notice  of  for  a  fine  fellow  ;  and  then  you  have 
an  opportunity  of  haranguing  your  auditory, 
which,  though  it  should  be  snobbish,  or  trifling, 
you  gain  your  point.  As  to  what  you  read  or  say, 
it  matters  not  much ;  if  from  the  more  musty  and 
ancient  authors,  the  better ;  if  from  the  more  mod- 
ern, the  more  fashionable  it  will  be  ;  and  thus,  con- 
sequently, you  will  either  be  esteemed  a  very 
learned,  or  at  least  a  very  ingenious  man.  If  you 
can  be  introduced  to  a  hospital,  your  business  is 


Xn  iWetifcfne.  23 

done  for  life,  be  your  success  vvliat  it  will.  If  your 
wife  should  happen  to  mind  business  in  her  way,  it 
will  certainly  also  increase  yours,  for  many  good 
reasons,  as  increasing  your  friends  and  acquaint- 
ances. It  will  not  be  amiss  to  set  up  an  equipage, 
to  purchase  a  mountain  of  books,  and  add  any  thing 
by  which  you  will  acquire  the  reputation  of  being 
a  learned  and  ingenious  gentleman.  Let  your  re- 
ligious and  political  opinions  swim  with  the  tide, 
especially  when  fashionable.  *  *  *  Dq^  Que- 
vedo  is  of  opinion,  that  the  best  way  to  run 
into  business,  is  to  run  into  debt,  because  your 
creditor  will  employ  you,  to  get  paid — as  to  putting 
this  experiment  into  practice,  I  shall  rather  choose 
to  leave  it  to  your  own  natural  genius  to  direct  you 
therein,  than  much  to  persuade  you  thereto,  since 
there  may  be  danger,  should  it  not  succeed. 

"To  these  hints,  I  must  observe  to  you,  that 
dancing  and  dressing  well,  are  not  such  slight  ac- 
complishments to  introduce  a  young  physician  into 
practice,  as  you  may  imagine,  because  it  makes  him 
acceptable  to  the  ladies  and  the  deau  mondc:  his 
fashionable  gesture,  and  gentle  manner  of  feeling  a 
pulse  agreeably,  is  half  the  business. 

"  I  could  mention  you  some  who  got  into  busi- 
ness, in  physic,  by  writing  poetry,  some  by  divinity, 
others  by  politics,    etc.     But  should  you  have  an 


24  m\t  MntH  ^rts 

itching  to  make  your  name  known  by  writing  a 
book  on  physic,  yet  so  customary,  I  would  advise 
you  to  choose  the  subject  by  which  j^ou  think  you 
will  get  most  money,  or  that  which  will  bring  you 
the  most  general  business,  as  fevers,  small-pox,  etc. 

"And  next,  then,  I  would  advise  you,  whatever 
the  subject  be,  you  write  upon  (if  uncommon  the 
better),  rather  to  write  so  that  no  man  can  make 
an}^  thing  of  it,  so  as  neither  to  make  downright 
sense  or  nonsense  thereof,  than  otherwise  ;  because 
thus  none  of  the  physicians  can  well  lay  hold  of 
you  for  any  particular  part ;  or  if  they  should,  there 
is  room  for  you  to  defend  it,  being  as  easy  to  be 
understood  one  way  as  the  other.  This  is  that 
method  I  commend,  which  Mr.  Locke  observes  to 
be  possible  enough,  for  one  to  write  a  tolerable  dis- 
course of  well  chosen  and  well  joined  words, 
which  nevertheless,  on  the  whole,  makes  not  up 
any  real  sense,  or  intelligent  meaning.  Thus  I 
will  suppose  a  man  to  write  of  sleep  ;  now  if  I 
wrote  in  this  manner,  it  is  ten  to  one  but  that  it  will 
make  all  who  read  it  fall  asleep,  and,  consequently, 
what  can  be  better  said  on  the  subject? 

"  The  last  thing  I  advise  you  to  do,  is  to  get  ac- 
quainted and  cheerfully  to  keep  company  with  all 
old  women,  midwives,  nurses  and  apothecaries, 
since  these  will  still  be  entertaining  you  in  the  way 


Xtt  fttetifcfne.  25 

of  your  business,  and  as  the  old  ladies,  etc.,  are 
the  most  subject  to  ailings,  so  they  will  still  be  ac- 
quainting you  with  the  same ;  and  consequently, 
you  are  to  make  the  most  of  it,  and  never  to  neg- 
lect or  make  slight  of  the  least  complaint.  And 
thus  you  will  gain  the  reputation  of  being  both 
careful  and  skillful  ;  whereas,  otherwise  your  care 
and  skill  may  be  suspected,  as  well  as  your  affec- 
tions."* 

Now,  m}^  dear  John,  this  was  all  written  proba- 
bly one  hundred  and  fifty  years  ago,  but  when  we 
reflect  on  the  fact  that  men  of  one  hundred  and  fifty 
years  ago,  are  the  fathers  of  those  living  one  hun- 
dred and  fifty  years  after  them,  it  is  not  astonish- 
ing that  the  letter  is  nearly  as  applicable  to  this 
generation  as  it  was  to  that  to  which  it  was  ad- 
dressed ;  and  hence,  I  have  reproduced  it  for  your 
benefit.  Excepting  that  we  are  living  in  a  country 
of  sojnewhat  different  surroundings,  it  indeed 
sounds  as  if  addressed  to  us  of  the  present  time 
and  place,  and  I  might  not  inappropriately  go  on 
to  comment  upon  it,  as  Van  Swieten  did  upon  the 
aphorisms  of  Boerhaave. 

As  the  writer  then  said,  so  I  would  say  now,  let 

♦Though  ascribed  to  Mead,  the  truth  is,  that  he  could  never 
liavc  written  it,  save  in  tlie  spirit  of  irony.  It  is  not  in  accord 
witli  tlio  noble  character  of  Mead. 


26  jE:itc  Blacfe  mvts 

your  first  care  be  to  let  yourself  be  known,  let  the 
town  ring  of  you,  let  it  be  known  that  there  is  such 
a  physician.  Living  as  you  do  in  but  a  village,  of 
course  the  expedients  3'ou  will  have  to  resort  to  will 
differ  from  those  alluded  to  in  the  letter. 

One  of  the  common  stock  ways  among  tbe  push- 
ing fellows  of  the  cities  of  nowadays,  is  to  be  in 
league  with  certain  newspapers,  and  to,  by  skillful 
management,  frequentl}^  have  their  names  in  their 
local  and  personal  columns ;  for  instance,  if  you 
were  called  to  an  accident,  3'^ou  would  manage  to 
get  it  in  the  next  days  paper,  have  it  reported  how 
the  very  skillful  and  popular  Dr.  J.  Charlatan 
Greene  was  called  in,  and  how  much  he  seemed  to 
sympathise  with  the  poor  sufferer,  and  with  what 
skill  he  dressed  the  woundsj  and  what  he  said  about 
the  case  ;  and  here,  if  you  throw  in  as  many  high 
sounding  technical  phrases  as  possible,  it  will  tell, 
for  the  less  the  public  understand  them,  the  more 
will  they  give  you  credit  for  wisdom  and  learning. 
Co7nmendant  quod  non  intelligiint. 

"  For  the  dull  world  must  honors  pay  to  those, 
Who,  on  their  understandings,  most  impose." 

This  principle  of  human  nature  was  well  illus- 
trated in  the  comments  of  a  certain  old  lady  upon  a 
sermon  of  the  celebrated  Bascom.     Oh,  said  she, 


Kn  JHetifciue.  27 

"  what  a  fine  sermon  we  had  to-da}',  and  what  a 
smart  man  is  brother  Bascom,  I  couldn't  under- 
stand a  word  of  it."  But  in  the  whirl  and  turmoil 
of  a  great  city,  once  will  not  do  to  be  spoken  of, 
but  keep  your  name  before  the  public,  until  like 
that  of  Hembold,  John  Bull,  and  other  quack  ad- 
vertisers, the  people  will  at  last  get  it  imprinted  on 
their  minds,  simply  for  the  much  seeing  of  it.  I 
have  known  an  instance  or  two  where  doctors  were 
supposed  to  have  driven  over  children  in  the  streets, 
in  order  to  get  their  names  in  the  papers  in  connec- 
tion with  the  accident.  I  have  heard  it  said  of  one 
very  sharp  fellow,  that  when  his  name  had  been  too 
long  absent  from  the  public  gaze  as  he  thought,  he 
would  lose  his  dog,  and  then  advertise  his  dog  in 
connection  with  his  own  name  in  large  capitals. 

But  in  country  practice,  such  as  you  are  a  candi- 
date for,  there  are  an  hundred  other  little  ways,  which 
may  be  adopted.  In  the  first  place,  you  might  ride 
or  drive  a  peculiar  horse,  a  "  calico  horse"  or  pie- 
bald mare,  or  a  buggy  with  an  excessive  deal  of 
red  or  green  paint  upon  it,  would  be  sure  to  make 
people  stare  and  talk,  and  that  whether  they  at  first 
said  any  thing  good  or  bad  of  you,  is  all  you  want. 
As  Geo.  Francis  Train  once  telegraphed  to  his  bus- 
iness manager  prior  to  fullilling  an  engagement  to 
lecture  in  a  western  city  :  "  Make  them"  (the  peo- 


28  jTiie  Blacft  ^vts 

pie)  "  say  any  thing  about  me  they  please,  abuse 
me  if  they  will,  but  for  God's  sake  do  n't  let  them 
forget  me." 

You  must  determine  on  the  cultivation  of  some 
particular  st3'le  or  manner.  You  may  be  either  re- 
markable for  your  rude,  rough  manner,  or  on  the 
other  side  for  extreme  civility.  Better  either  ex- 
treme than  the  intermediate.  Strange  to  sa}''  man- 
kind seem  to  like  a  certain  amount  of  ill  usage. 
RadclifTe  used  to  say  that  the  secret  of  his  hold  on 
mankind  was,  that  he  abused  them  well.  However, 
here  I  might  say  to  you,  that  to  keep  your  place  in 
public  esteem,  and  to  be  of  this  type,  requires  that 
it  should  be  backed  by  some  real  merit.  I  think  it 
was  probably  harder  for  an  Abernethy  or  a  Chap- 
man to  win  his  way,  than  a  Cooper  or  a  Watson. 
If  you  assume  the  urbane,  run  it  into  the  ground, — 
almost,  but  not  quite.  I  have  seen  a  fellow,  so 
extremely  would-be  polite,  as  to  thank  his  patient 
for  putting  out  his  tongue  to  him  every  time  he 
asked  him.  That  was  playing  it  somewhat  too 
fine,  for  it  was  a  little  nauseous  to  the  bystanders. 

In  learning,  you  may  go  to  either  extreme,  affect 
to  despise  learning,  and  set  yourself  up  as  one  rely- 
ing entirely  on  your  strong  common-sense  and  great 
experience,  or  pretend  to  be  very  learned.  If  you 
affect  the  former,  you  will  be  inclined  to  win  over 


Kit  ^rtiicntr.  29 

a  certain  number  of  the  hard-fisted  yeomanry  and 
half  educated,  who  so  generally  pride  themselves  on 
their  common  sense,  which  so  frequently  proves  to 
•be  nonsense.  To  be  generally  known  as  a  com- 
mon-sense doctor,  among  this  class, — and  they  are 
quite  numerous,  is  to  put  you  in  repute.  To  illus- 
trate what  I  mean,  I  give  yon  the  following  little 
episode  : 

"  I  had  just  finished  my  supper,  and  was  quietly 
enjoying  my  cigar  on  the  deck  (of  the  boat),  when 
I  heard  an  individual  declaiming  in  a  loud  tone  of 
voice  to  some  two  or  three  attentive  listeners  (but  ev- 
idently intended  for  the  benefit  of  whomsoever  it 
might  concern)  on  pathology.  Being  as  it  were  thus 
invited,  I  also  became  a  listener  to  something  like  the 
following:  ^  There  it  is  now!  Well,  some  people 
talk  about  seated  fevers;  I  don't  know  any  thing 
about  seated  fever.  A  musquito-bite  is  a  fever ; 
cure  the  bite  and  the  fever  leaves  you.  So  with  a 
bile,  just  the  same  thing ;  there  a'nt  no  such  thing 
as  a  seated  fever,  I  tell  3'ou.  The  fact  is,  your  regu- 
lar doctor  practizes  according  to  books,  I  practize 
according  to  common  sense.  Now  there  was  Dr. 
Rugg  of  our  village,  the  Sampson  of  materia  med- 
iker.  Well,  he  treats  fevers  according  to  the  books  ; 
consequence  is  I  get  all  the  patients ;  and  he  says 


30  5rhe  Blacit  ^rts 

to  me  one  day,  says  he,  '  why,'  said  he,  'how  is  it 
you  get  all  the  fever  cases  !'  And  I  told  him  ex- 
actly how  it  was,  and  it  is  so.  *  Well  doctor,'  in- 
terrupted one  of  the  listeners,  '  how  do  you  treat 
fevers  !  Well,  there  it  is ;  you  ask  me  how  I  treat 
fevers  !  If  you  had  asked  me  when  I  first  com- 
menced practizing,  I  could  ha'  told  you ;  I  can  't 
tell  you  now.  I  treat  cases  just  as  I  find  'em,  ac- 
cording to  common  sense.  And  there  it  is ;  now 
there  was  Mrs.  Scuttle,  she  was  taken  sick;  all 
the  folks  said  she  had  the  consumption  ;  had  two 
doctors  to  her ;  did  n't  do  her  a  single  mossel  o' 
good.  They  sent  for  jue.  Well,  as  I  went  into  the 
house,  I  see  a  lot  o'  tansy  and  a  lot  o'  chickens  by 
the  door ;  felt  her  pulse,  says  I  Mrs.  Scuttle,  you 
a'int  no  more  got  the  consumption  than  I  've  got  it. 
Two  weeks  and  I  cured  her  !  '  Well,  doctor,  how 
did  you  cure  her?'  How  did  I  cure  her?  There 
it  is  again  !  I  told  you  I  saw  a  lot  of  tansy  and  a 
flock  of  chickens  growing  at  the  door.  I  gave  her 
some  of  the  tansy,  and  a  fresh  laid  ^g^-,  brought 
her  right  up.  Its  kill  or  cure  with  me  !  In  fact,  I 
call  myself  an  officer ;  my  saddle-bags  is  my  sol- 
diers, and  my  disease  my  inimy.  I  rush  at  him, 
and  ither  he  or  me  is  got  to  conquer.  I  never  give 
in!' 


Xu  ^etJfrfite.  3i 

"  My  cigar  was  out,  and  while  lighting  another, 
the  doctor  vanished."* 

If  you  wish  to  play  tlie  opposite  role,  however, 
you  will  not  find  it  very  hard  to  get  up  a  cheap  rep- 
utation with  a  certain  chass  of  the  public,  for  learn- 
ing and  progressiveness.  In  the  first  place,  you 
might  get  two  or  three  diplomas ;  the  article  is  very 
cheap  nowadays,  and  easily  attainable  for  a  little 
money  and  less  knowledge.  If  you  do  n't  frame 
them  and  hang  them  in  your  office  for  public  in- 
spection, which  might  look  a  little  vulgar,  you 
could  easily  let  the  fact  of  your  having  so  many  be 
generally  circulated.  You  might  also  make  a  pa- 
rade of  some  new  books,  and  several  medical  jour- 
nals, and  if  among  them  you  could  put  one  or  two 
French,  German  or  Italian,  it  would  be  well.  It 
does  not  much  matter,  whether  you  can  half  way 
read  them  or  not ;  the  people  who  come  into  your 
office,  will  be  apt  to  presume  you  can,  and  that  is 
sufficient.  I  would  advise  you,  however,  to  be  a 
little  sly  when  those  come  about  who  can  read 
them,  lest  you  unwittingly  expose  yourself.  You 
might  also  make  a  good  deal  out  of  a  few  medical 
or  surgical  instruments,  for  in  this  world  it  is  quite 
possible  to  make  a  great  flourish  over  a  little  thing  ; 

^Knickerbocker  Magazine,  Editor's  Table,  Dec,  1859. 


32  rfte  JSlacU  mvts 

for  instance,  I  have  known  a  fellow  totally  ignorant 
of  the  grand  principles  of  physical  diagnosis,  who 
could  n't  tell  heart  disease  from  j)hthtsick,  and  who 
could  n't  have  given  the  distinction  between  a  bruit 
and  a  souffle,  if  perdition  had  been  staring  him  in 
the  face,  as  a  penalty  for  his  ignorance,  yet  acquire 
some  reputation  as  a  practitioner  in  diseases  of  the 
chest,  by  a  grand  flourish  of  Cammann's  stetho- 
scope on  proper  occasions.  A  great  deal,  indeed, 
might  be  made  out  of  as  simple  an  instrument  as 
the  clinical  thermometer,  in  neighborhoods  where 
the  instrument  has  not  come  into  common  use  with 
the  profession,  for  I  have  seen  some  people  ignorant 
and  credulous  enough  to  suppose  you  could  tell  by 
it,  what  they  had  eaten  for  dinner  the  day  before. 
I  have  known  a  good  deal  of  reputation  gained  by 
the  hypodermic  syringe,  when  it  first  came  into  use 
in  this  country. 

On  giving  a  new  remedy,  if  it  has  a  good  effect, 
always  tell  your  patient  that  you  were  the  first  to 
use  it.  These  things  are  for  the  public  to  recollect, 
but  if  you  have  to  meet  any  of  your  professional 
brethren,  who  as  you  think,  know  more  than  you 
do  about  such  things,  you  will  then  have  to  be  on 
the  look  out,  and  try  and  open  your  mouth  as  sel- 
dom as  possible.  Then  it  would  be  best  for  you  to 
look  as  grave  as  "an  owl  in  an  ivy  bush,"  or  an 


Hit  i^ctiicinr.  33 

*'  ape  in  a  house  porch,"  but  to  deport  yourself  with 
a  silence  becoming  your  gravity,  lest  like  CEsop's 
crow,  by  opening  your  mouth  the  cheese  should 
depart  from  you. 

The  use  of  very  high  sounding  technical  terms, 
may  sometimes  be  played  off  to  advantage,  but  you 
should  always  study  your  company  here.  People 
of  much  sense  are  usually  disgusted  by  such  dis- 
play. I  knew  of  an  instance,  in  which  a  doctor 
after  a  consultation,  gravely  announced  to  the  family 
that  they  had  agreed  to  pursue  with  the  patient 
*'  the  caia^Iastic,  sinapistic,  and  enematic  mode  of 
treatment.''''  Immediately  a  buzz  of  admiration 
passed  around  the  group  of  old  ladies  in  the  room, 
composing  the  auditory,  but  blankness,  succeeded 
by  contempt,  soon  overspread  their  faces,  when  the 
doctor  in  consultation,  a  little  maliciously  inter- 
preted to  the  old  crones,  that  in  other  words,  they 
expected  to  apply  -poultices  and  -plasters  and  give 
injections  to  poor  Mr.  Smith. 

A  step  far  forward  in  the  way  of  increasing  one's 
business,  is  to  lake  a  wife.  I  have  known  many  to 
marry  with  this  end  in  view.  A  married  doctor,  all 
things  being  equal,  has  advantages  over  the  single 
one,  not  only  in  being  able  to  bring  to  bear  in  iiis 
favor  increased  family  influence,  but  the  public  are 
readier  to  trust  him  with  family  practice,  and  espec- 


34  mxt  ninzh  mvts 

ially  in  obstetrics  and  ailments  peculiar  to  females. 
Why,  God  only  knows,  but  I  have  long  observed 
it  as  a  fact,  that  the  public  seem  to  think  the  pos- 
session of  a  wife  adds  greatly  to  a  doctor's  stock  of 
morals  and  knowledge,  and  hence  the  taking  of  a 
wife,  may  in  a  certain  light  be  looked  upon  as  an 
investment — the  taking  of  so  much  stock  in  trade. 
Joining  some  church  or  other,  is  another  invest- 
ment frequently  made.  Should  you  do  this,  pick 
out  the  most  popular  one,  with  the  fewest  doctors  in 
it.  I  have  known  some  before  now  to  change  their 
church  once  or  twice,  hunting  for  the  one,  attach- 
ment to  which  would  pay  best.  The  old  trick  of 
being  called  out  of  church  in  the  midst  of  service, 
is  a  very  good  one,  and  one  which  you  might  have 
repeated  tolerably  frequently, — the  old  ladies  will  al- 
ways notice  it,  and  talk  some  about  it  after  meeting, 
and  will  be  the  more  apt  to  recollect  you  when  they 
have  sickness  at  home.  Always  go  into  church 
late  when  everybody  else  is  seated,  you  will  thus 
be  sure  to  be  noticed  by  the  congregation,  and  if 
you  do  n't  have  a  confederate  to  call  you  out  during 
preaching,  you  can  leave  yourself,  just  at  its  con- 
clusion as  if  compelled  to  hurry  away  on  account 
of  the  urgenc}'^  of  your  business.  Standing  in  the 
doorway  of  the  church,  or  just  outside,  and  bow- 
ing to,  and  shaking  hands  with  as  many  of  the  con- 


gregation  who  pass  out  as  you  can,  is  also  very 
profitable  in  its  way.  It's  a  gentle  intimation  to  the 
congregation,  that  you  are  their  representative  in 
physic,  and  that  it  is  their  doctrinal  duty  to  employ 
you,  especially  if  there  is  no  other  medical  man  in 
the  fold.  I  advise  you,  however,  to  be  more  dis- 
creet, than  was  a  certain  medico,  in  a  certain  city 
west.  He  joined  a  church,  and  something  like  a 
year  passing,  and  but  little  grist  coming  to  mill 
from  that  quarter,  his  indignation  one  Sunday  so 
got  the  better  of  his  discretion,  that  on  the  retire- 
ment of  the  congregation,  he  fiercely  saluted  the 
sexton  : 

"  Well,  sir,  I  have  been  a  member  of  this  church 
ten  months,  and  have  never  gotten  a  patient  from  it 
yet, — I  want  to  know,  sir,  what  it  means?" 

The  sexton  indignant,  and  also  in  doubt  about 
the  doctor's  perfect  sanity,  unfortunately  collared 
him,  and  thereupon  ensued  a  scramble  and  a  scene, 
which  attracting  the  passers-b}^  and  the  police,  re- 
sulted in  the  bruiting  of  the  thing  over  the  whole 
town,  and  getting  a  recital  of  it  into  the  public 
prints. 

Freemasonry,  Oddfellowship,  Teetotalism  and 
membership  with  all  kinds  of  clubs  and  societies, 
may  with  some  address,  be  turned  to  good  account 
and  be  made  to  pay. 


36  rhe  Mlmk  ^vts 

Your  politics  you  may  make  equally  subservient 
to  your  ends  as  your  religion  ;  these  are  the  days 
when  men  trade  in  both.  As  in  the  selection  of 
your  religion,  so  in  the  formation  of  your  political 
principles,  select  the  strongest  side  and  the  winning 
candidate,  if  you  only  can  foresee  it.  Changes 
here  should  always  be  made  with  the  changing  tide 
of  popular  opinion.  Such  changes,  will  readily  be 
taken  as  patriotic  convictions,  and  will  not  be  so 
closely  scrutinized,  or  so  readily  attacked  by  your 
enemies,  as  changes  in  .your  religion, — always,  as 
I  have  said,  so  change  as  to  be  on  the  popular  side, 
since  it  pays.  An  activity  at  primary  elections  and 
ward  meetings,  sometimes  may  be  made  to  pay  well. 
Give  your  favorite  to  understand  that  you  expect  a 
gtiz'd  -pro  quo,  that  to  electioneer  for  him,  you  ex- 
pect him  to  electioneer  for  you,  a  thing  you  have  a 
right  to  expect,  since  it  will  cost  him  nothing.  In 
electioneering  for  others,  furthermore,  you  are  be- 
coming perfected  in  the  accomplishments  of  the  arl 
for  yourself.  Of  Saturday  evenings  and  court 
days,  when  the  country  people  most  do  congregate 
in  town,  you  can  station  yourself  in  front  of  your 
office  door,  and  bob  your  head  to  every  fellow  who 
passes,  and  shake  hands  with  every  one  whose 
name  you  can  pronounce,  and  it  will  be  very  well 
to  hold  the   hands  of  each   a   long  time,  and   take 


him  by  both  hands  indeed.  It  will  show  a  very 
friendly  spirit  which  may  ultimately  tell  for  you.  I 
recollect  once,  a  man's  coming  to  employ  me,  and 
he  told  me  that  he  had  wished  to  do  so  for  a  long 
time,  but  that  he  had  found  it  impossible  to  get  rid 
of  his  previous  doctor,  for  says  he, 

"  He  is  so  inighly  friendly^  and  shakes  hands 
with  me  so  warmly  every  time  he  meets  me,  that  I 
really  could  n't  have  the  heart  to  get  any  other  doc- 
tor, until  my  failing  health  compelled  me." 

When  you  have  ever  attended  a  case,  and  it  has 
recovered  by  virtue  of  your  treatment,  or  in  spite 
of  it,  do  n't  omit  any  opportunity  of  reminding 
your  late  patient,  and  his  friends  of  the  fact,  en- 
joining upon  them  the  propriety  of  always  remem- 
bering the  bridge  which  has  once  carried  him  over 
safely. 

When  a  man  employs  you  once,  try  to  impress 
him  with  the  idea  that  you  have  personal  property 
in  him,  and  that  you  shall  be  justly  incensed,  if 
ever  he  shall  change  you,  for  anybody  else.  On 
at  any  time  learning  of  his  having  another  doctor, 
go  to  him,  and  ask  him  why  he  has  ceased  to  em- 
ploy you,  and  tell  him  that  your  feelings  are  hurt. 
If  he  has  not  gotten  totally  out  with  you,  by  this 
you  may  probably  whip  him  back  into  traces. 

If  you    are    called    to   a    case    which    ultimately 


38  mxt  MacU  ^I'ts 

proves  fatal  under  your  charge,  assert  that  you  were 
called  in  too  late.  This  may  produce  some  painful 
regrets  on  the  part  of  the  friends  of  the  sick 
who  may  never  forgive  themselves  after  what  you 
have  said,  but  it  excuses  yourself  for  its  termina- 
tion, and  is  besides  inclined  to  increase  business, 
by  making  them  always  send  for  you  in  future  for 
the  most  trifling  ailments.  It  is  also  a  good  ma- 
neuver where  another  doctor  has  been  dismissed, 
and  you  have  succeeded  in  the  case.  I  know  of 
one  instance  where  a  young^doctor  in  the  first  year 
of  his  practice,  was  attending  a  child  with  tuher- 
ciilar  meningitis,  the  parents  concluded  to  substi- 
tute a  gra}'  beard  for  youth,  and  sent  for  "  a  man 
of  experience."  Though  of  course  an  essentially 
fatal  case,  the  old  doctor  gravely  told  the  family 
that  if  he  had  but  been  sent  for  in  time,  he  would 
have  cured  the  little  patient.  The  immediate  conse- 
quence was  that  the  young  man  was  damned,  while 
experience  held  its  ground ;  the  ultimate  result 
was,  that  the  young  man  disgusted  with  the  arts  of 
acquiring  practice,  retired  from  the  field,  but  is  to- 
day, one  of  the  most  distinguished  cultivators  of  the 
natural  sciences  in  America. 

Sometimes  people  get  tired  of  the  progress  of  a 
case,  although  it  may  be  toward  recovery,  and  dis- 
miss the  attending  physician.     The  doctor  called 


Xn  ^ctifcfne.  39 

to  succeed  him,  now  always  has  the  advantage,  if 
he  will  take  it,  of  giving  an  overwhelming  blow  to 
his  rival.  Under  such  circumstances  do  any  thing 
but  what  the  doctor  before  you  may  have  done,  and 
as  nearly  as  you  can,  just  the  opposite.  Indeed, 
if  the  case  is  one  safely  to  leave  to  nature,  yet  to 
make  a  profound  impression,  you  must  n't  do  it. 
Puke,  purge,  sweat,  blister  and  scarify,  and  thus 
your  impression  will  surely  be  profound,  and 
though  the  poor  devil  slowly  emerges  from  bed  in 
spite  of  your  treatment,  3-et  you  are  thereafter, 
pretty  sure  to  have  a  big  name  in  the  family,  and 
the  shadow  of  your  brother  practitioner,  just  as 
sure,  never  again  to  darken  your  pathway  toward 
that  house. 

Another  art  of  value  is,  in  certain  cases  where 
the  opportunity  presents,  to  substitute  a  grave  affec- 
tion for  a  simple  one  in  your  diagnosis  ;  thus,  an 
ephemeral  fever  might  easily  become  a  typhoidal 
one,  a  sore  throat  a  diphtheria,  hemicrania,  spotted- 
fever,  and  so  on  to  the  end  of  the  chapter.  Thus 
you  may  by  a  little  art,  acquire  the  reputation  of 
being  a  good  typhoid  fever  doctor,  or  great  on 
diphtheria,  or  that  you  cure  cases  of  spotted  fever, 
where  the  other  doctors  fail,  etc. 

I  have  known  some  doctors  who  never  let  an  op- 
portunity  slip,   of   magnifying   the    value   of  their 


40  m\t  Ulacfc  ^rts 

services ;  they  gravely  inform  their  patients,  that  it 
w^as  lucky  they  sent  for  them  just  when  they  did, 
for  it  was  by  their  timely  arrival  and  puissant  inter- 
vention, that  a  mighty  fever  was  prevented,  if  they 
had  not  gotten  there  just  when  they  did,  and  done 
the  very  peculiar  things  which  they  did  do,  the 
bellyache  would  soon  have  run  into  a  tyfhlo- ente- 
ritis with  intussusception ^  and  the  child's  stumped- 
toe  would  probably  soon  have  become  the  worst 
kind  of  a.  case  of  sphacelated  mortijication.  It  is 
a  little  curious,  but  patients  seem  to  love  to  think 
they  have  escaped  great  dangers,  and  when  they 
learn  from  the  doctor  how  great  is  the  danger  from 
stumped-toes,  cut  fingers,  pin  scratches  and  every 
"  bad  cold  "  and  bellyache,  if  at  all  timid,  of  course 
the  doctor  is  much  sought  after. 

But  it  is  time  to  stop,  I  have  given  you  an  out- 
line of  the  "  art,"  sketched  the  field,  and  it  re- 
mains for  you  to  fill  in  the  details.  "There  are  a 
hundred  ways  to  kill  a  dog  besides  choking  him  to 
death  on  butter."  "The  devil  may  always  be 
whipped  around  the  stump."  The  ways  and  means 
to  be  adopted  will  depend  upon  your  individual  in- 
genuity and  mother  wat.  A  man  who  by  a  dexter- 
ous application  of  the  arts  which  have  been  my 
text,  can't  succeed  in  getting  practice,  and  yet  re- 
tain his  place  within  the  fold  of  the  regular  profes- 


sion — if  he  is  so  hard  put  to  it,  that  he  has  to  resort 
to  open  quackery,  or  stoop  so  low  as  to  brazen  his 
cheek,  and  ask  a  man  directly  for  his  practice,  why 
he  is  n't  worthy  of  the  blood  of  the  Sharpes,  and 
that  strain  of  the  Charlatan's  flowing  through  your 
veins. 

Now  I  don't  tell  you  to  "fight  it  out  on  this 
line,"  indeed,  as  I  have  said  above,  I  think  the 
doctor  who  relies  purely  upon  what  he  considers 
his  scientific  merits,  and  devotes  all  his  energies  to 
the  endeavor  to  make  himself  truly  meritorious, 
disregarding  entirely  the  "arts,"  has  the  easiest 
time  of  it  in  attaining  a  successful  business,  for  he 
is  certainly  freed  from  all  those  burning  fears  and 
harassing  anxieties,  lest  the  scepter  should  depart 
from  him,  which  must  always,  more  or  less,  be  the 
portion  of  those  building  reputations  on  any  other 
foundation.  But  the  majority  of  those  following 
professions,  will  not  make  up  their  minds  to  the 
adoption  of  this  policy,  or  if  they  do,  they  too  soon 
get  tired  of  pursuing  the  tedious  and  often  difficult 
paths  through  which  it  leads. 

If  you  have  it  in  you,  John,  to  pursue  the  straight 
and  narrow  path,  and  climb  the  rugged  heights, 
then  I  advise  you  to  ignore  all  this  which  I  have 
written.  But  if  not,  then  the  hints  above  given, 
may  prove  useful  to  you,  in  piling  up  pelf. 


42  m\z  Blacfe  ^rts  fit  ^etifcfitc. 

In  our  strugfrle  for  existence,  in  our  efforts  at 
self-preservation,  in  accordance  with  the  law  of  our 
nature,  let  us  pray  for  deliverance  from  temptation, 
and  let  us  look  to  it,  that  our  Societies  are  kept  from 
all  dark  practices,  our  watchword  being — Down 
with  the  UlacU  ^rtS  of  i^CUlCine,  and  confusion 
to  all  practitioners  of  them. 


Kmibmavu   mhvm 


BEFORE     THE 


BOYLE  COUNTY  (KY.)  MEDICAL  SOCIETY. 

DELIVERED  JANUARY   5,    1S69. 


Gentlemen : — We  meet  to-night,  on  this,  the 
third  anniversary  of  our  Society's  existence.  Three 
years  ago,  our  association  was  organized ;  since 
then  we  have  met  nearly  an  hundred  times,  and  as 
often  engaged  in  the  discussion  of  questions  per- 
taining to  our  profession.  Fortnightly,  for  three 
years,  have  we  continued  to  assemble,  despite  all 
hindrances,  and  now,  on  this  triennial  anniversary 
occasion,  and  especially  at  this  season,  so  sugges- 
tive of  reflection — when  the  old  year  has  died  out, 
and  we  stand  on  the  threshold  of  the  new  one,  with 
its  vista  of  fresh  hopes  and  fair  budding  promises 
opening  out  before  us — we  may  naturally  ask,  cui 
bono,  what  profiteth  it  ?  Have  we,  by  our  organi- 
zation, advantaged  ourselves   beyond   what  would 

U3) 


44  SItitircss. 

have  been  were  we  unororanized !  What  is  our 
present  status  compared  with  our  past,  and  what 
are  our  prospects  for  the'  future  ? 

These  natural  questions,  so  pertinent  to  the  time 
and  the  occasion,  we  stand  here  to-night,  to  en- 
deavor to  answer. 

Sometime  since,  in  conversing  with  an  old  friend, 
a  retired  member  of  the  profession,  living  adjacent 
to  a  town  not  a  hundred  miles  from  here,  we  asked 
him  :  What  tidings  of  the  sons  of  -^sculapius  of 
your  place,  and,  tell  me,  especially,  whether  they 
have  yet  organized  a  society?  He  replied,  "  The 
sons  of  ^sculapius,  as  you  are  pleased  to  call 
them,  but  rather  sons  of  Ishmael,  one  from  my 
stand-point  of  vision,  would  call  them,  have  not, 
and  I  assert,  never  will  organize  a  society."  I 
asked  him,  why.  He  replied,  that  there  were  so 
many  varying  interests  and  so  much  discord  among 
the  doctors, that,  to  a  looker-on,  it  seemed  impossible 
to  ever  sufficiently  harmonize  them  to  organize  a 
society,  founded  on  mutual  concessions,  though  the 
object  might  be  for  a  common  benefit. 

Upon  my  asking  him  to  be  more  explicit,  and 
give  me  some  idea  of  the  state  of  things,  individu- 
ally, he  proceeded  in  the  following  strain  :  "  We 
have  some  eight  or  ten  doctors  in  our  midst,  a  suffi- 
cient number,  it  is  true,  to  form  a  society,  but,  when 


^tdrress.  45 

I  tell  you,  that  instead  of  seeming  to  be  a  band  of 
brethren,  engaged  in  a  common  cause,  they  seem 
to  feel  that  they  are  a  band  of  Ishmaelites,  common 
enemies,  every  man's  hand  naturally  raised  against 
his  neighbor's,  you  will  at  once  see  the  foundation 
upon  which  I  rest  my  opinion."  But,  said  I,  perhaps 
you  judge  them  too  severely,  you  know  that  we  are 
all  naturally  rivals,  that  most  of  us  are  dependent 
upon  our  profession  for  a  support,  and  that  what  has 
been  .called  the  first  law  of  our  nature — self-pres- 
ervation, leads  every  man  to  prefer  himself  to  his 
neighbor.  Tell  me,  said  I,  what  are  the  rules  govern- 
ing them  in  their  intercourse  with  one  another,  upon 
what  grounds  do  they  rel}'  for  advancing  themselves 
or  to  get  practice.  Though  a  rivalry  must  exist,  yet 
there  is  such  a  thing  as  an  honorable,  indeed  a  gen- 
erottsx\va\xy.  He  then  continued  :  "  I  believe  I  am 
correct  when  I  say,  that  no  three  of  the  doctors 
speak.  Let  a  new  member  of  the  faculty  come  to 
town  to  settle,  and  they  instantly  view  him  as  an 
interloper,  trespassing  on  their  own  rightful  do- 
mains, and  treat  him  accordingly.  Woe  be  unto 
any  of  their  number  who  may  commit  a  mistake,  or 
have  any  evil  to  befall  him  in  his  practice,  for  he  at 
once  becomes  common  prey  for  the  balance,  who 
look  upon  the  weakness  of  the  rival  as  so  much 
stren<rth   lent   to  themselves.     As   to  their  code  or 


46  ^tiKress. 

rules  governing  them  in  advancing  themselves — 
the  prime  one  seems  to  be  the  old  primitive  one  of 
'  every  man  for  himself  and  the  devil  take  the 
hindmost.'  Another  cardinal  one,  I  think,  is — 'get 
practice,  honestly,  if  you  can,  but  anyhow,  get 
practice.'  The  means  adopted  to  get  practice  are 
multitudinous,  and  the  preseverance  with  which  they 
are  followed  and  the  astuteness  with  which  they  are 
applied  by  some,  would  do  honor  to  any  cross-roads' 
politician.  Marriage,  the  church,  masonry,  odd- 
fellowship,  teetotalism,  democracy,  radicalism,  the 
kukluk  klan  and  the  loyal  league,  are  all  impressed 
for  aid,  and  the  way  in  which  court  days  and  Sat- 
urday evenings  are  spent  in  the  shaking  of  hands 
and  -palaver,  a  spectator  would  think  the  next  week 
an  important  election  was  to  come  off,  and  the  doc- 
tor was  the  candidate  for  office.  Indeed  he  would 
sometimes  think  the  vote  was  surely  to  take  place  on 
Monday,  judging  from  certain  scenes  on  certain 
church  steps  on  Sundays.  To  sum  up  the  matter," 
said  he,  "  though  I  blush  to  tell  it,  I  have  heard  a 
doctor,  without  circumlocution  and  with  unmantled 
cheek,  ask  a  citizen  directly  for  his  patronage." 

These,  and  some  other  things,  he  said  of  the  art 
of  acquiring  practice  adopted  by  the  ph3^sicians  of 
his  locality,  which  I  thought  would  have  formed  a 


^ntiress.  47 

worthy  appendix  to  the  celebrated  letter  of  Mead  * 
to  Dr.  Timothy  Van  Bustle  on  the  same  subject. 
Though  m}'  friend  is  rather  hypercritical,  and  withal 
naturally  something  of  a  cynic,  and  therefore  prob- 
ably drew  the  scene  with  rather  too  heavy  a  hand, 
yet  we  can  all  recognize  some  lines  which,  alas  ! 
are  but  too  commonly  visible,  in  any  but  well- 
organized  communities. 

Though  in  localities  in  which  no  organization  of 
the  medical  body  exists,  the  large  number  of  medi- 
cal men  may  act  in  the  true  spirit  of  the  profession, 
and  while  admitting  that  if  there  was  no  written 
code,  that  yet  the  true  physician  would  carry  out 
its  spirit,  just  as  the  true  gentleman  would  always 
be  found  acting  in  accordance  with  the  spirit  of  the 
civil  law,  if  even  it  was  not  the  law  of  the  land, 
yet,  just  as  the  necessities  of  society  at  large  de- 
mand organic  laws,  so,  on  precisely  the  same  prin- 
ciple, is  organization  and  a  written  code  demanded 
by  every  profession.  With  the  clergy,  as  with  the 
military,  it  is  indeed  the  fundamental  rule  of  exist- 
ence. 

The  truth  is,  that  owing  to  human  depravity,  we 
are  all  naturally  a  little  mean,  and  are  instinctively 
predisposed  to  be  a  little  jealous  each  of  the  other. 
This  is,  when  we  analyze  it,  but  an  extension  of  the 


48  ^tJtJrcss. 

natural  law  of  self --preservation  be3'0nd  proper 
limits.  Now,  r  think  I  may  truthfully  sa}^  that 
there  is  no  more  effectual  way  of  repressing  this 
evil  phase  of  our  nature,  in  its  multifarious  disgust- 
ing forms,  as  we  see  it  cropping  out  within  the  folds 
of  our  profession,  than  b}'^  the  accepted  public  ac- 
knowledgment on  the  part  of  the  better  portion  of 
our  profession  of  a  written  code.  Let  the  public  at 
large  once  be  fully  cognizant  of  our  standard,  and 
half  the  incentives  to  self-abasement  have  been 
taken  away  ;  for  they,  the  audience  before  whom 
we  play  our  respective  parts,  can  at  once  measure 
each  of  us  by  our  own  rules,  and  the  most  respect- 
able part  of  society  learns  soon  to  look  with  dis- 
gust upon  the  tricks  of  the  tradesman  in  the  pro- 
fessional man.  Sir  Benjamin  Brodie  once  said 
that  medicine  is  a  most  noble  profession,  but  a 
miserable  trade.  Fully  imbue  society  with  this 
idea,  and  any  over-pushing,  grasping  desire  for  the 
world's  patronage,  at  the  expense  of  honorable  in- 
dependence and  the  nobler  feelings,  or  at  the  sac- 
rifice of  the  rights  of  others,  and  the  violator  will, 
by  the  public  as  by  ourselves,  be  viewed  with  pro- 
found scorn. 

The  foundation  of  all   pure  ethical  precepts  is  in 
the    golden  rule,   "  Do  unto   others  as  you  would 


liave  them  do  unto  you,"  and  its  spirit  has  ever  been 
breathed  into  all  the  established  rules  for  profess- 
ional intercourse  with  which  we  are  acquainted. 
It  is  infused  into  the  grand  old  Hippocratic  oath  of 
fifty  ages  agone.  It  permeates  the  noble  precepts 
of  that  prince  of  surgeons  of  five  hundred  years 
ago,  Guy  of  Chauliac,  who  summed  up  the  char- 
acter of  the  true  surgeon  by  saying  that  "  He 
should  be  courteous  and  condescending,  hold  in  se- 
curity, cautious  in  time  of  danger,  avoiding  im- 
practicabilities, compassionate  to  the  infirm,  benev- 
olent to  his  associates,  circumspect  in  prognostica- 
tion, chaste,  sober,  pious,  and  merciful,  not  greedy 
of  gain,  no  extortioner,  but  looking  for  his  fee  in 
moderation,  according  to  the  extent  of  his  services, 
the  ability  of  his  patient,  the  result  of  his  treatment, 
and  a  proper  sense  of  his  own  dignity."  And  now, 
in  our  own  Code  of  Ethics,  as  written  by  the  ever- 
to-be-honored  Percival,  and  adopted  b}'  the  Amer- 
ican Medical  Association,  we  have  as  perfect  a 
system  of  rules  for  our  government,  founded  on  as 
pure  a  system  of  morality  as  the  most  rigid  moralist 
could  ever  wish  for — a  code  which,  from  its  essen- 
tial nature,  must  always  purify  and  ennoble  those 
living  in  accordance  with  its  precepts. 

How  men  of  our  profession,  of  good  sense  and 


50  ^Ijtiress. 

good  intentions,  can  ever  live  and  practice  their  vo- 
cation in  the  same  community  without  being  on 
good  terms  with  each  other,  is  not  easily  explica- 
ble ;  for  there  is  certainly  no  other  profession,  the 
inherent  nature  of  the  practice  of  which  so  inevita- 
bly and  so  repeatedly  demands  co-operation,  and 
mutual  kindly  services.  As  has  been  said  by  one 
of  eminence  in  our  profession  :  "  If  society  does 
treat  the  medical  man  harshly  and  unkindly,  is  it 
any  worse  than  medical  men  treat  each  other? 
Many  of  the  worst  things  ever  said  of  a  ph3^sician, 
originally  came  from  another  physician's  tongue  ; 
society  is  often  merely  the  whispering  galler}'-, 
which  echoes  back  these  utterances.  Were  we 
more  charitable  toward  each  other,  we  would  si- 
lence half  the  reproaches  which  are  brought  upon 
the  profession."  *  It  would  always  be  well  for  that 
man  who  should  be  ready  to  rejoice  at  the  mishaps 
of  his  neighbor,  and  dishonorably  profit  by  his  mis- 
fortunes, to  reflect  that,  being  human,  we  are  all 
thereb}^  fallible,  and  that  the  day  may  not  be  far 
distant  when  he  himself  may  stand  in  sore  need  of, 
and  most  wistfully  crave,  all  human  sympathy; 
and,  furthermore,  that  he  who  does  injustice  to  one 
of  his  peers,  directly  wounds  his  profession,  and, 
renectively,  himself. 

*Dr.  Theophiliis  Parvin. 


^litirfss.  51 

How  different  was  the  noble  conduct  of  Dr. 
Mead  !  He  and  Dr.  Freind  were  at  the  head  of 
the  profession  in  London,  and  were  rivals  in  prac- 
tice, as  well  as  opposed  to  each  other  in  politics — 
Mead  being  a  Whig,  and  possessing  great  influence 
with  the  heads  of  the  party  then  in  power,  while 
the  latter  was  a  Tory,  and  a  member  of  Parliament 
for  Launceston.  Dr.  Freind,  being  suspected  of 
some  connection  with  the  Atterbury  plot,  was  ar- 
rested and  committed  to  the  Tower,  where  he  was 
confined  for  nearly  a  half  year.  Mead  was  about 
this  time  called  to  attend  Sir  Robert  Walpole,  and 
during  his  professional  attendance,  pleaded  so 
eloquently  with  the  Prime  Minister  as  to  effect 
Dr.  Freind's  discharge  on  bail,  he  himself  becom- 
ing one  of  his  sureties.  Not  only  this,  but  he  took 
Freind  aside,  after  his  release,  and  presented  him 
with  a  purse  containing  5,000  guineas,  the  sum  of 
all  the  fees  he  had  received  from  the  patients  of  his 
Jacobite  rival  during  his  imprisonment,  enforcing 
its  acceptance  by  saying  :  "  I  can  not  profit  by  the 
misfortunes  of  a  rival."  What  a  worthy  example 
of  magnanimity  was  the  course  of  Dr.  Paul  F.  Eve, 
who,  appointed  Professor  of  Surgery  in  the  Uni- 
versity of  Louisville  on  Dr.  Gross'  leaving  the 
chair,  to  occupy  a  similar  position  in  New  York, 
when  the  latter  returned  to  Louisville,  after  a  year 


52  ^tiUrcss. 

or  two,  at  once  resigned,  telling  tlie  trustees  to  re- 
appoint Dr.  Gross — that  he  was  the  ablest  man  for 
the  position  to  be  found  in  the  West,  and  that  the 
honor  of  the  school  and  the  good  of  the  profession 
demanded  his  reappointment! 

The  practice  of  our  profession  in  the  proper  spirit, 
tends,  of  its  very  self,  to  ennoble  us,  and  this  trib- 
ute was  paid  to  medicine  more  than  a  thousand 
years  ago,  by  no  less  a  personage  than  Cicero, 
when  he  said,  '*  Homines  ad  Dcos  nulla  re  ^ro- 
■priiis  acccdunt,  quam  salutem  houiinibus  dando." 

But,  as  the  organization  of  individuals  into  com- 
munities is  greatly  auxiliary  to  individual  effort, 
whether  it  be  for  the  furtherance  of  material  inter- 
ests, or  the  practice  of  the  moral  virtues,  so  is  our 
profession  benefited  by  the  formation  of  Societies. 
Certainly  one  of  the  most  powerful  levers  impelling 
the  advance  of  medical  science  during  the  past  half 
century,  has  been  the  establishment  of  the  numer- 
ous medical  Societies  which  during  that  time  have 
grown  up  in  the  capital  towns  of  Europe. 

Before  these,  every  alleged  discovery  with  any 
pretensions  to  importance,  is  brought  up,  and  un- 
dergoes the  ordeal  of  scientific  discussion  by  the 
ablest  minds  of.  our  profession.  Before  these,  a 
thousand  pretentious  theories  which  would  have 
lived  some  time  in  the  world,  have  promptly  re- 


enuresis.  53 

ceived  their  quietus;  and  it  has  been,  on  the  other 
hand,  through  its  ventilation  here,  that  many  an 
opinion  or  method  which  would  otherwise  have 
been  very  slow  of  development,  has  at  once  ob- 
tained its  proper  standing  with  the  profession.  The 
great  medical  Societies  of  the  world  are  the  win- 
nowing machines  of  the  profession,  serving  the 
most  useful  purpose  of  sifting  the  good  from  the 
bad,  the  true  from  the  false.  Let  the  Academy  of 
Medicine,  or  the  Imperial  Academy  of  Surgery, 
of  Paris,  alone  be  blotted  out  to-day,  and  the  loss 
would  soon  be  sensibly  felt  by  the  profession 
throughout  the  world. 

Is  there  a  member  of  the  Boyle  County  Medical 
Society  present  to-night,  but  will  agree  with  me  in 
affirming  that,  as  an  individual  practitioner,  he  has 
been  instructed  and  elevated  morally  as  well  as 
mentally  from  our  united  association?  And,  fur- 
thermore, I  believe  I  speak  the  truth  when  I  say, 
that  as  the  result  of  the  Society's  organization 
and  operations,  our  profession  as  a  body,  and  as  a 
consequence,  we,  as  individual  practitioners,  have 
been  elevated  an  hundred  per  cent,  in  the  eyes  of 
this  community  in  whose  midst  we  belong. 

There  may  be  mentioned — not  in  the  spirit  of 
egotism,  but  for  self-encouragement,  and  to  demon- 
strate the  claim  that  our  organization  has  not  been 


54  ^tJtiress. 

in  vain — the  effects  of  our  Society  abroad.  I  be- 
lieve that  the  profession  throughout  the  State,  who 
are  informed  as  to  the  history  of  the  reorganization 
of  the  Kentucky  State  Medical  Society,  with  one 
accord  give  the  credit  of  its  revival  to  us,  and  cer- 
tainly that  the  plan  for  its  resurrection  originated 
here.  I  am  aware  of  three  societies  within  the  State, 
which,  encouraged  by  our  example,  have  been  or- 
ganized, adopting  in  the  main,  the  constitution,  by- 
laws, and  form  of  business  governing  this  body, 
and  I  have  reason  to  believe  that  more  than  one 
other  association,  antedating  us  in  age,  has  been 
awakened  from  its  state  of  suspended  animation  and 
had  new  vitality  infused  into  it,  by  the  example  of 
our  prosperity. 

What,  gentlemen,  are  our  prospects  for  the  fu- 
ture? Has  our  Society  reached  its  acme  of  effi- 
ciency, and  is  it  unreasonable  to  expect  the  fruits 
of  the  year  just  before  us  to  excel  the  products  of 
the  one  just  ended  ? 

While  acknowledging  that  our  organization^ 
simple  as  it  is,  is  yet  remarkably  well  adapted  for 
effecting  its  object,  and  while  I  think  I  can  say 
without  reflecting  egotism,  that  we  have  done  well 
in  the  past,  yet  truth  demands  that  I  should  say 
that  there  yet  remains  a  wide  margin  for  improve- 
ment. 


Wherein  we  are  yet  lacking,  and  the  direction 
in  which  I  think  improvement  can  be  effected,  it 
becomes  my  duty  to  endeavor  to  point  out. 

It  has  been  justly  said  by  an  eminent  observer 
in  our  profession,  "A  very  large  class  enter  the 
learned  professions  with  no  higher  motives  than 
such  as  characterize  commercial  enterprises,  pur- 
suing them  as  a  business,  and  more  anxious  to 
erect  monuments  like  that  of  Nebuchadnezzar  in 
the  plain  of  Dura,  than  such  as  fill  the  niches  of 
fame."* 

"  Make  sordid  wealth  the  object  and  sole  end 
Of  their  industrious  aims." 

But,  gentlemen,  though  we  know  that  while  we 
have  our  own,  with  perhaps  many  other  hungry 
mouths  to  fill,  we  must  ever  instinctively  feel,  that 
to  derive  an  income  from  our  professional  labors 
must  be  one  of  our  first  objects — an  object  the 
worthiness  of  which  we  have  sanctioned  by  the  in- 
spired authority,  which  tells  us  that  "  he  who  pro- 
videth  not  for  his  household  is  worse  than  an 
infidel" — yet  we  should  never  forget  that  we  have 
it  from  the  same  authority,  that  "man  shall  not  live 
by  bread  alone." 

Dr.  George  B.  Wood  once  declared   that  "  He 

*Dr.  D.  Hayes  Agnew. 


56  ^trtrrcss. 

who  enters  the  medical  profession  with  a  mercen- 
ary spirit,  will  almost  necessarily  come  short  of  its 
highest  requirements.  Aiming  at  the  appearance, 
rather  than  the  reality  of  skill,  he  will  think  more 
of  the  impression  he  may  make  on  others,  than  of  a 
proper  understanding  and  treatment  of  the  disease. 
Wlien  nothing  is  to  be  gained  but  the  consciousness 
of  duty  fulfilled,  he  will  be  little  apt  to  spend  time 
and  labor  which  might  yield  him  more  if  applied 
elsewhere,  or  at  least  would  be  abstracted  from  his 
pleasures.  For  the  frequent  self-denial,  the  steady 
devotion  of  thought  and  energy,  the  unwavering 
guard  over  his  precious  charge,  as  well  when  un- 
seen as  when  seen  of  men,  which  characterize  the 
right  spirited  practitioner,  he  has  no  sufficient  in- 
ducement. He  will  be,  almost  necessarily,  more 
or  less  superficial.  He  never  can  be  the  true 
model  physician.  Just  in  proportion  as  medicine  is 
cultivated  in  the  mercenary,  or  in  the  poor  profes- 
sional spirit,  will  be  its  decay  or  advancement  in 
efficiency,  zeal,  dignit}'-  and  acceptance  with  God 
and  man.  *  *  Get  the  true  professional  spirit, 
and  all  that  is  needful  or  desirable  will  be  added 
unto  it." 

The  English  Hippocrates,  Sydenham,  used  to 
say :  "I  have  thought  it  a  greater  happiness  to  dis- 
cover a  certain  method  of  curing  the  slightest  dis- 


ease,  than  to  accumulate  the  largest  fortune."  And 
the  illustrious  Dr.  Fothergill  once  said  :  "My  only 
wish  was  to  do  what  little  business  might  fall  to  my 
share  as  well  as  possible,  and  to  banish  all  thoughts 
of  practicing  physic  as  a  money-getting  trade,  with 
the  same  solicitude  as  I  would  the  suggestions  of 
vice  or  intemperance.  *  *  *  j  endeavor  to  fol- 
low my  business  because  it  is  m}'-  duty,  rather  than 
my  interest ;  the  last  is  inseparable  from  a  just  dis- 
charge of  duty,'''' 

Lord  Bacon  has  said  "  that  every  man  is  a  debtor 
to  his  profession,  from  the  which,  as  men  do  of 
course  seek  to  receive  countenance  and  profit,  so 
ought  they  of  duly  to  endeavor  themselves,  by  way 
of  amends,  to  be  a  help  and  ornament  thereunto." 
Our  code  makes  the  same  acknowledgment  in  the 
paragraph  which  declares  that  "  Every  individual, 
on  entering  the  profession,  as  he  becomes  thereby 
entitled  to  all  its  privileges  and  immunities,  incurs 
an  obligation  to  the  extent  of  his  best  abilities  to 
maintain  its  dignity  and  honor,  to  exalt  its  standing, 
and  to  extend  the  bounds  of  its  usefulness;"  and 
further  on  enjoins  that  he  "  should,  by  unwearied 
diligence,  resort  to  every  honorable  means  of  en- 
riching the  science." 

Now,  gentlemen,  let  us  ask  ourselves  the  ques- 
tion direct,  and  let  each  answer  it  honestly  for  him- 


58  ^trtiress. 

self,  whether  during  the  year  just  closed,  he 
thinks  he  has  been  perfectly  imbued  with  the 
"  pure  professional  spirit,"  or  whether  he  does  not 
think  we  all  3'et  have  rather  too  much  of  the 
*'  mercenary  sort."  Have  we  always  attended  our 
society  meetings,  when  it  was  possible?  Have  we 
always  prepared  ourselves  as  thoroughly  as  we 
could  for  our  debates?  Have  we  always  done 
what  we  could  in  the  way  of  prepared  papers,  and 
written  records  of  cases,  to  be  read  before  our  So- 
ciety? Have  we,  in  every  instance  possible,  de- 
manded and  held  a  ^ost  mortem^  when  we  had  a 
fatal  case?  Have  we  taken  advantage  of  the  op- 
portunities we  have  had  of  cultivating  anatomical 
science,  the  very  groundwork  of  our  profession? 
Have  we  all  kept  case  books,  and  carefully  re- 
corded the  progress  and  results  of  each  case  in  our 
practice?  Have  we  kept  as  many  journals  on  our 
tables  as  we  could  afford  to  take  and  had  time  to 
read,  and  purchased  every  new  work,  the  perusal 
of  which  was  necessary  to  keep  us  abreast  in  the 
present  rapid  march  of  our  profession?  Have  we 
provided  ourselves  with  all  instruments  which  the 
exigencies  of  our  profession  and  the  urgency  of 
certain  cases  which  are  liable  to  fall  into  our  hands 
at  any  day,  will  not  give  us  time  to  send  abroad 
for,  when  the  occasion  arises  for  their  use,  and  the 


want  of  which,  under  certain  circumstance,  might 
make  us  morally  criminal,  on  the  death  of  a  fellow- 
being?  And  have  we  always  kept  ourselves  so 
pure  and  unspotted  from  the  world  of  quackery, 
that  by  a  refusal  of  private  social  recognition  of  its 
practitioners,  we  take  away  from  the  public  all  oc- 
casion of  confounding  them  with  us?  To  make 
application  of  an  expression  of  St.  Paul,  "  Have 
we  all  done  what  we  could  to  magnify  our  profes- 
sion?" 

But  methinks  1  hear  some  one  present  say,  We 
have  no  time  for  most  of  these  things  ;  the  toils  of 
our  practice,  and  the  domestic  duties — with  those 
of  us  having  families — so  engross  our  time  as  to 
leave  us  insufficient  leisure  for  the  cultivation  of 
medicine  as  a  science.  Besides,  some  of  us  are 
growing  old,  and  we  must  leave  every  thing  of  that 
sort  to  the  younger  generation,  following  after. 

But  I  would  ask  any  so  objecting,  to  think  for  a 
few  moments,  and  tell  me,  if  he  can,  of  any  great 
work  which  we  acknowledge  as  of  much  authority 
in  our  profession,  which  has  not  been  prepared 
amid  just  such,  or  more  onerous  duties  than  any  by 
which  the  busiest  of  us  is  now  harassed.  Let  him 
reflect  that  some  of  the  most  valuable  of  all  the 
works  for  v.'hich  to-day  our  profession  is  indebted  to 
Sir  Astley  Cooper  were  composed  in  the  midst  of 


60  ^titrress. 

one  of  the  largest  private  practices  of  any  man  who 
ever  lived,  and  at  the  time,  too,  when  he  was  an 
hospital  surgeon,  and  daily  lecturer  in  a  medical 
school.  Let  him  look  at  those  eighteen  volumes 
of  Gerard  Van  Swieten's  "  Commentaries  on  Boer- 
haave,"  the  great  text-book  of  the  medical  world  a 
centur}^  ago,  and  reflect  that  they  were  written  by 
a  court  physician  of  Joseph  II.,  in  the  midst  of  one 
of  the  heaviest  and  most  responsible  of  private 
practices,  and  that  he  still  found  time  to  originate 
a  medical  school,  give  clinical  lectures,  create  a 
botanical  garden,  and  to  exert  his  influence  suffi- 
ciently to  found  a  university.  Let  him  read  the 
lives  of  Boerhaave  and  Haller  and  Hoff'man,  the 
bare  titles  of  the  latter  of  whose  works  fill  thirty- 
eight  quarto  pages,  and  see  if  they  had  learned 
leisure  in  which  to  do  nothing  else  than  write.  Does 
not  every  one  know  that  Hippocrates,  the  father  of 
medicine,  wrote  those  immortal  records  which  all 
acknowledge  as  the  foundation  of  our  science  while 
engaged  in  what  must  have  been  almost  constant 
practical  professional  engagements.  Or  let  him 
come  down  to  the  present  year  and  hour,  and 
know  that  the  living,  shining  lights  of  our  own  day 
and  generation,  are  also  the  busiest  privately  occu- 
pied. Let  him  know  that  Sir  Thomas  Watson,  and 
George  B.  Wood,  and  Austin  Flint,  and  Sir  Will- 


iam  Ferguson,  and  Erichsen,  and  Gross,  and  Sir 
James  Y.  Simpson,  and  Hodge,  and  Meigs,  each 
wrote  the  works  which  we,  and  generations  after  us, 
shall  be  indebted  to  them  for,  while  busier  that  the 
busiest  of  us  in  this  presence.  No,  gentlemen,  when 
we  recollect  that  Dr.  John  Mason  Good  found  time 
to  translate  Lucretius'  "  De  Natura  Rerum,"  with 
his  book  in  hand  as  he  drove  or  walked  his  daily 
rounds,  engaged  in  one  of  the  largest  practices  in 
London,  and  when  we  read  in  the  preface  to  Dr. 
Willis'  Biography  of  Harvey,  together  with  a  com- 
plete translation  of  his  works  from  the  Latin,  what 
he  says  in  speaking  of  the  biographical  part :  "  This 
portion  of  my  work  I  have  only  achieved  with  an 
effort,  and  at  something  like  disadvantage.  Inces- 
santly engaged,  by  night  and  by  day,  in  the  labori- 
ous and  responsible  duties  of  a  country  practice, 
enjoying  nothing  of  learned  leisure,  but  snatching 
from  the  hours  that  should  rightfully  be  given  to 
rest,  the  time  that  was  necessary  to  composition, 
remote,  too,  from  means  of  information  which  I 
must  nevertheless  send  for  and  consult" — recalling 
these,  and  an  hundred  similar  examples  if  we 
might,  for  one  I  think  that  there  is  not  one  of  us 
but  should  feel  humiliated  when  reflecting  on  our 
wasted  time,  time  which  we  have  let  slip  from  us, 
never,  nevermore  to  be  repossessed. 


62  ^tJtrrcss. 

But,  I  imagine  I  again  hear  it  objected,  that  we 
are  but  unpretentious  country  doctors,  not  aspiring 
to  lead  the  profession,  and  even  if  we  were  all 
aflame  with  ambitious  hopes  to  do  so,  that  our  nar- 
row sphere  would  make  their  realization  an  impos- 
sibility— that  the  village  doctor  must,  from  the  very 
nature  of  things,  ever  be  the  passive  follower  of 
the  hospital  physician  of  the  city. 

But,  I  would  answer,  gentlemen,  that  this  is  not 
the  point.  I  am  not  speaking  of  ambition,  though 
if  we  each  had  a  little  more  of  it  in  us,  it  would 
probably  be  better  for  ourselves  and  our  patients ; 
the  question  is  one  regarding  the  fulfillment  of  that 
injunction  of  that  code  which  says  that  we  are  mor- 
ally bound  to  exalt  the  standing  of  our  profession, 
and  by  "  unwearied  diligence,  resort  to  every  hon- 
orable means  of  enrichingf  the  science."  Because 
the  hospital  presents  a  wider  and  more  easily  culti- 
vated field  than  oUrs,  does  it  follow  that  ours  must 
be  totally  barren?  No,  the  material  in  each  case 
is  just  the  same,  poor  suffering  humanity,  and 
while  the  concentration  of  a  large  number  of  sick 
within  a  small  space,  and  the  regulations  of  hospi- 
tals, are  such  that  the  observer  can  study  disease 
more  readily,  have  his  directions  carried  out  more 
effectually,  and  record  and  tabulate  the  results 
more  easily,  3^et  the  antecedents,  the  surroundings, 


and  the  very  concentration  of  patients  within  elee- 
mosynary institutions,  are  so  different  from  those  of 
the  patients  of  private  life,  that  the  uncorrected  con- 
clusions of  experience  drawn  from  the  former 
source  alone,  are  not  perfectly  applicable,  in  every 
respect,  to  those  whom  we  attend. 

I  can  not  recollect  any  evidence  that  either  Hip- 
pocrates or  Sydenham,  was  ever  connected  with  a 
hospital,  and  it  would  be  well  for  those  who  would 
despise  our  narrow  sphere,  to  recall  the  fact,  that 
the  greatest  boon  which  our  profession  has  yet  con- 
ferred upon  humanit}''  (vaccination),  came  at  the 
hands  of  a  modest  country  phj^sician,  who  made 
his  daily  rounds  just  as  we  are  doing  ;  and  let  him 
also  know,  that  the  physician  of  America  now  re- 
ceiving the  most  honors  at  home  and  in  Europe,  is 
doing  so  because  of  an  operation  conceived,  exe- 
cuted, and  perfected  while  laboring  in  precisely  the 
same  character  of  field  as  our  own.  Why,  gentle- 
men, an  operation  which  has  made  the  name  of  its 
originator  famous  throujrhout  the  world,  and  will 
send  it  down  honored  to  coming  generations,  an 
operation  by  which  thousands  of  lovely  women 
have  been,  and  many  more  shall  be  rescued  from 
otherwise  inevitable  death,  was  first  planned  and 
performed  right  here  in  this,  our  own  little  field. 

Let  us  all  use  the  opportunities  at  command,  to 


64  ^tjKress. 

the  extent  of  our  abilities,  and  although  our  Society 
may  never  be  honored  by  one  to  whom  the  world 
shall  owe  .so  much  as  it  does  to  a  Jenner,  a  Sims, 
or  a  McDowell,  yet  of  one  thing  we  may  feel  as- 
sured, that  we  will  all  become  better  practitioners, 
and  our  patients,  to  whom  we  shall  be  called  to 
minister,  be  proportionately  benefited. 

The  plain  truth  is,  that  those  who  intrust  them- 
selves to  our  care,  have  the  right  to  require  of  us  a 
knowledge  of  our  profession  fully  up  to  the  ad- 
vances of  the  day,  and  for  the  lack  of  the  posses- 
sion of  such  knowledge,  involving  human  life  and 
health  as  it  does,  we  stand  responsible  before  God 
and  in  the  presence  of  the  law.  Ours  is  not  an  ex- 
act science,  but  is  making  regular  and  rapid  pro- 
gress toward  a  position  in  which  it  may  be  ranked 
with  the  fixed  sciences.  While  this  rapid  march 
continues,  to  cease  to  advance  is  to  retrograde,  and 
the  day  the  practitioner  of  medicine  ceases  to  be  a 
student,  that  day  should  see  him,  if  a  conscientious 
man,  ready  to  retire  from  the  ranks  of  the  profes- 
sion. Unremitting  study  and  labor  Vv'ill  ever  con- 
stitute our  only  reliable  motive  power,  so  long  as  we 
continue  members  of  that  great  army,  in  the  inter- 
ests of  medical  science,  warring  with  disease. 

In  the  introduction  to  one  of  his  anatomico- 
physiological    treatises,  Galen   calls    his  work  "A 


^titiress.  65 

Hymn  to  the  Deity,"  declaring  that,  to  his  mind, 
such  an  offering  was  more  acceptable  in  the  eyes 
of  the  gods,  than  the  sacrifices  of  whole  hecatombs 
of  oxen,  or  incense  from  the  most  costly  perfumes. 
Galen  was  but  a  pagan,  yet  the  spirit  of  his  lan- 
guage was  worthy  of  these  most  Christian  times, 
since  every  effort  properly  directed  toward  the  ad- 
vancement of  medicine,  tends  to  alleviate  the  suf- 
ferings of  our  race.  I  believe  the  true  physician 
can,  of  all  men,  most  truly  say — '■^laborarc  est 
orare." 

If  we  believe  in  the  sentiment,  there  is  one  re- 
solve which  I  think  we  should  make  in  common 
here  to-night,  that  we  should  each  of  us  keep  a 
case  hook  and  in  it  faithfully  record  the  phenomena, 
treatment  and  results  of  every  case  of  any  impor- 
tance falling  to  our  lot  during  the  present  year. 
The  keeping  of  an  intelligible  and  conscientious 
record,  must  necessarily  improve  every  individual 
keeping  it,  but  let  a  dozen  men  in  country  practice 
each  keep  one  and  the  combined  experience  is 
about  equivalent  to  a  large  ward  in  a  hospital. 
Should  the  members  of  every  country  district  in 
the  State,  keep  accurate  records,  for  the  next  three 
years,  there  would  be  data  of  the  most  valuable 
character,  and  such  as  our  profession  stands 
greatly  in  need  of,  data  from  which  the  statistics  of 


66  ^tiUrcss. 

modern  country  practice  separate  from  hospital  prac- 
tice could  reliably  be  made  out.  Let  us  keep  accu- 
rate records  6f  our  practice,  and  we  will  gradually 
lose  a  phase  in  our  debates  which  has  been  entirel}'' 
too  familiar  with  us,  and  one  which  does  not  look 
well  in  a  scientific  body,  when  seen  too  often.  I 
allude  to  the  common  expression  of  opinion,  with- 
out a  reason  for  the  faith  in  us,  and  which  is  a 
frequent  source  of  controversy  without  practical 
benefit ;  e.  g. — Dr.  A.  says  that  he  thinks  a  certain 
disease  less  common  than  formerly,  while  Dr.  B. 
aiises  and  declares  that  he  thinks  it  more  common, 
to  be  followed  by  Dr.  C,  who  probably  thinks  it 
about  as  common  as  it  has  always  been.  Or,  let 
the  question  be  one  regarding  the  presence  of  cer- 
tain phenomena  in  disease,  or  the  results  of  the  ad- 
ministration of  a  certain  remedy,  and  it  is  the  same 
thing.  But  if  we  could  all  draw  upon  the  zv?'itten 
records  of  our  experience,  instead  of  our  uncon- 
firmed recollections,  which  are  too  often  but  "vain 
imaginings,"  our  opinions  would  be  more  nearly 
demonstrable.  '■'•  Litera  scri^ta  manct."  We 
should  not  forget  that  simple  opinions  are  not  ex- 
perience, let  them  be  asserted  ever  so  boldly,  but 
that,  as  Liston  has  said,  "The  greatest  number 
of  well-assorted  facts,  on  a  particular  subject,  con- 


stitute  experience,  whether  these  facts  have  been 
culled  in  five  years  or  fifty." 

Next  in  importance  with  us  to  the  subject  just 
under  discussion  is,  I  think,  the  making  of  post- 
mortems and  anatomical  dissections. 

The  first  has  always  been  deemed  necessary  to 
the  intelligent  practice  of  our  profession,  and  ab- 
solutely essential  to  the  advancement  of  medicine 
toward  a  perfect  science.  Without  it,  nearly  one- 
half  the  fruits  of  what  we  are  accustomed  to  call 
experience  is  lost ;  for  otherwise  we  have  no  means 
of  confirming  the  correctness,  or  correcting  the  er- 
rors of  judgment,  regarding  pathological  conditions 
supposed  to  exist  during  life,  and  toward  w^iich 
our  therapeutics  have  been  directed.  It  is  true, 
that  I  have  sometimes  heard  it  objected,  that  prac- 
titioners in  the  country  are  so  unaccustomed  to  ex- 
amining the  dead,  that  whenever  they  do  so,  their 
opinions  are  worth  but  little  from  their  inability  to 
clearly  discern  and  distinguish  normal  from  abnor- 
mal appearances.  But  this  is  the  most  futile  of  ob- 
jections, being,  indeed,  one  of  the  strongest  argu- 
ments in  behalf  of  their  being  more  frequently  held. 
It  has  been  remarked  that  one  of  the  most  correct 
indices  of  the  true  standing  of  our  profession  in  any 
locality  is  the  frequency  o( post-mortems. 

As    to    the    latter — practical  anatomy — I    don't 


68  mtitiVtSS. 

know  that  I  can  adduce  any  arguments,  or  the 
opinions  of  any,  entitled  to  more  authority  concern- 
ing the  necessity  of  its  cultivation  b}'  us,  than  have 
been  adduced  by  Sir  Astley  Cooper  and  Sir  Benja- 
min Brodie.  The  former  has  said  :  "Let  it  always 
be  remembered,  that  operations  can  not  be  safely 
undertaken  by  any  man,  without  his  possessing  a 
thorough  knowledge  of  anatomy.  This  is  the  real 
ground-work  of  all  surgical  science.  It  has  ever 
been  found  that  half  anatomists  are  bungling  prac- 
titioners ;  ignorance  here,  as  it  always  does,  gives 
confidence  without  power.  *  *  *  With  us  the 
march  of  improvement  has  been  most  rapid  ;  and 
it  has  principally  arisen  from  the  assiduity  with 
which  the  modern  surgeons  have  pursued  their 
dissecting-room  avocations."  The  latter,  when 
once  conversmg  in  private  with  a  young  American 
who  had  just  taken  his  degree  in  medicine,  said  : 
"  If  you  wish,  my  young  friend,  to  give  breadth  to 
your  medical  conceptions  and  confidence  to  your 
hand,  if  you  wash,  indeed,  to  make  yourself  a 
great  surgeon,  let  me  say  to  you,  as  I  would  to  all 
with  whom  I  have  influence,  never  for  a  moment 
cease  the  cultivation  of  anatomical  science."  Now 
it  will  not  do  to  excuse  ourselves  by  saying  that, 
being  country  doctors,  we  make  no  special  preten- 
sions to  surgery,  and  that  the  remarks  quoted  were 


atiurcss.  69 

intended  to  apply  alone  to  those  practicing  surgery 
purely,  and  that  when  a  surgical  operation  is  neces- 
sary, they  are  the  ones  to  whom  we  send  our  pa- 
tients for  its  performance.  The  truth  is  that  the 
advice  is  in  a  great  measure  as  applicable  to  the 
pure  physician  as  to  the  surgeon  ;  and,  further- 
more, the  accomplishments  demanded  at  the  hands 
of  practitioners  in  the  country  are  really  much 
greater  than  those  of  the  city  practitioner,  who  can 
devote  himself  to  medicine  alone,  or  to  surgery  ex- 
clusively. For  we,  from  the  nature  of  our  situa- 
tion, must  be  physicians,  surgeons  and  obstetricians 
— all.  I  admit  that  it  is  true  that  in  probably  the 
majority  of  our  cases  we  can  send  our  patients  with 
surgical  affections  abroad  for  operations,  but  we 
must  recollect,  gentlemen,  that  in  many  instances 
we  can  not.  Every  country  doctor  must  be  his  own 
bleeder,  cupper  and  leecher ;  every  country-  doctor 
is  in  any  hour  liable  to  be  called  upon  to  reduce  a 
dislocation,  or  amputate  a  mangled  member,  or  set 
a  fracture,  or  trephine,  or  operate  for  inguinal  or 
femoral  hernia,  or  perform  tracheotomy,  or  extract 
a  bullet,  or  cut  down  upon  and  take  up  an  arter}' — 
operations  sometimes  requiring  no  little  degree  of 
anatomical  knowledge,  and  which  make  the  oper- 
ator sigh  for  an  opportunity  of  resorting  to  the 
cadaver  to  revive  his  recollections.     I  am  ready  to 


70  ^ti^rcss. 

admit  that  the  difficulties  and  dangers  of  dissection 
are  not  small,  to  say  nothing  of  its  disagreeable- 
ness,  and  that  we  are  placed  in  the  very  unpleasant 
and  anomalous  condition  of  being  compelled  to  be 
law-breakers  to  enable  ourselves  to  obey  the  law  ; 
but  I  think  it  has  alread}^  been  satisfactorily  de- 
monstrated that  the  good  sense  of  this  community, 
and  its  respect  for  our  profession,  are  such  that  we 
have  no  just  grounds  for  fearing  outside  interfer- 
ence with  dissections,  when  made  with  discretion, 
as,  indeed,  they  always  should  be.  "  Wc  imisi  dis- 
sect the  dead,  or  mangle  the  livhig^^ 

What  shall  I  say  of  the  hated  monster  Qiiackery, 
which  like  a  hideous  hydra-headed  shadow,  ever 
stalks  abroad  accompanying  our  profession?  As 
the  louse,  the  flea,  and  tick  are  the  constant  com- 
panions of  the  canine  tribe,  so  it  would  seem  the 
body-politic  is  destined  always  to  be  preyed  upon 
by  the  quack.  Though  the  crop  of  medicastors, 
charlatans,  quacksalvers,  nostrum-mountebanks, 
liniment-rubbers,  wind-pumpers,  electric-humbug- 
gers,  et  id  omne  gemis,  has  been  as  plentiful 
as  usual  during  the  past  three  3'ears,  yet  I  do  n't 
think  they  have  flourished  in  this  vicinity,  as  much 
as  was  their  wont  in  former  days. 

One  prime  source  of  the  evil  rests  in  the  bosom 


of  our  own  profession,  for  as  has  been  said  by  an- 
other :  "The  quackery  which  is  practiced  among 
medical  men  is  a  much  greater  evil  than  that  which 
is  abroad  in  the  community.  When  the  rules  of  an 
honorable  professional  intercourse  shall  come  to  be 
understood  by  the  public,  as  well  also  as  many  of  the 
tricks  and  maneuvers  which  are  employed  by  those 
physicians  who,  pursuing  medicine  as  a  h'adc  instead 
of  a  profession,  study  the  science  of  patient-getting, 
to  the  neglect  of  the  science  of  patient-curing,  one  of 
the  great  sources  of  the  success  of  quackery  will 
be  removed."*  Let  us  see  to  it  that  our  own  es- 
cutcheon shall  be  kept  clean,  if  we  wish  to  avoid  all 
danger  of  its  being  confounded  with  the  dirty  banner 
of  the  enemy.  As  I  once  heard  a  very  eloquent  di- 
vine say,  in  a  revival  sermon,  from  the  pulpit:  "If 
we  had  but  a  revival  within  the  fold  of  the  church, 
a  great  and  blessed  revival  indeed  would  it  be." 
So  might  we  paraphrase  him  and  declare  that  if 
the  profession  proper,  were  perfectly  purged  of 
quackery,  what  a  riddance  there  would  be.  In 
proportion  to  the  high  and  trusted  stand,  which  our 
profession  takes  m  a  community  as  a  scientific  and 
ethical  body,  is  the  difficulty  of  quackery's  obtaining 
a  foothold,  but  when    torn  with    dissensions  among 

♦Dr.  WorUiington  Hooker. 


72  ^itjress. 

ourselves,  chaos  prepares  a  rich  field  for  its  prolific 
growth. 

Our  code  declares  it  to  be  our  duty  as  "  physi- 
cians who  are  frequent  witnesses  of  the  enormities 
committed  by  quackery,  and  the  injury  to  health, 
and  even  destruction  of  life,  caused  by  the  use  of 
quack  medicines,  to  enlighten  the  public  on  these 
subjects,  and  to  expose  the  injuries  sustained  by  the 
unwary  from  the  devices  and  pretensions  of  artful 
empirics  and  impostors."  To  this  end,  I  think  that 
it  is  the  duty  of  each  of  us,  on  ever}^  proper  occa- 
sion, to  endeavor  to  reason  and  explain  away  the 
prejudices  and  misconceptions  of  the  more  intelli- 
gent portion  of  society,  for  it  is  this  part,  after  all, 
which  furnishes  the  main  pillar  of  its  support.  I 
think  that  not  infrequentl}'-  the  mistake  is  made  of 
treating  the  subject  with  some  simple  ejaculation 
of  contempt,  which  proves  ineffectual,  when,  if  we 
took  the  trouble  of  reasoning  a  little  with  those  who 
are  intelligent  and  honest,  though  misinformed,  our 
efforts  to  eradicate  error  would  more  frequently 
prove  successful. 

If  legislation  could  be  brought  properly  to  bear 
upon  the,  evil,  much  would  be  done  toward  its  re- 
pression. With  this  object  in  view,  one  of  our 
legislators  has  promised,  during  the  coming  session, 
to  introduce  a  bill  into  the  Legislature  similar  to 


the  medical  act  recentl}'  passed  in  the  neighboring 
State  of  Ohio. 

In  conclusion,  gentlemen,  we  ought  always  to 
remember  that  "  of  unity  cometh  strength;"  and 
that,  as  whatever  of  individual  honors  come  to  us 
are  reflected  upon  our  Society,  so  as  individual 
members  composing  the  Society,  whatever  of 
honors  or  glory  cometh  to  her  is  reflected  back 
upon  us.  Let  us  never  tbrget  that  the  preamble 
of  our  constitution  declares  a  prime  object  of  this 
organization  to  be  "the  cultivation  of  amity  among 
us;"  recalling  which,  let  us  foster  toleration,  char- 
ity, forbearance,  the  spirit  of  forgiveness,  and  all 
the  kindlier  feelings,  which  I  think,  considering 
every  thing,  have  pre-eminently  characterized  our 
association  in  the  past;  and,  as  greatly  promotive 
of  this  end,  1  would  suggest  that  we  meet  more  fre- 
quently around  the  social  board. 

And  now,  may  I  say,  in  the  name  of  every  mem- 
ber here  present  to-night,  that  whatever  of  joy  or 
sorrow  the  luture  may  bring  us,  nerved  to  a  triple 
resolve  by  the  recollections  of  the  three  years  just 
expired,  may  the  coming  three  always  find  us  true 
and  worthy  worshipers  at  the  altar  of  science,  ever 


74  ^trbress. 

lending  the  best  powers  of  head,  heart  and  hand 
toward  adorning  and  keeping  clean  the  little  niche 
in  the  great  Temple  of  Medicine  which  has  fallen 
to  the  lot  of  the  Boyle  County  Medical  Society. 


JULY,  1881. 


HISTORICAL  AND  MISCELLANEOUS 

PUBLICATIONS   OF 

CINCINNATI,  O. 


Alzog  (John,  D.  D.)     A  Manual  of  Universal  Church  History. 

Translated   by  llev.  T.  J.  Pabisch  and  Eev.  T.  S.   Byrne.     3 

vols.     8vo.  15  00 

Anderson'  (E.  L.)     Six  Weeks  in  Norway.     18mo'  1  00 

Andre   (Major)      The    Cow   Chace;    an   Heroick    Poem.      Svo. 

Paper.  75 

Antrim  (.T.)     The   History  of  Champaign  and  Logan  Counties, 

Ohio,  from  their  First  Settlement.     12mo.  1  50 

B.'VLL.^RD  (.Tulia  P.)  Insect  Lives;  or.  Born  in  Prison."  Illus- 
trated. Sq.  r2mo.  1  00 
Bell  (Thomas   J.)     History  of  the   Cincinnati    Water   Works. 

Plates.   Svo.  In  press. 

Benxer  (S.)     Prophecies  of  Future  Ups  and  Downs  in  Prices: 

what  years   to   make   Money  in   Pig    Iron,   Hogs,  Corn,  and 

Provisions.     2d  ed.     24mo.  1  00 

Bible   in   the   Pcbuc   Schools.       Records,    Arguments,   etc.,   in 

the   Case   of    Minor   vs.    Board   of  Education   of  Cincinnati. 

Svo.  2  00 

Arguments  in  Favor  of  the  Use  of  the  Bible.  Separate. 
Paper.  5U 

Arguments  Against  the  Use  of  the  Bible.  Separate.  Paper.  50 
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BiNKERD  (A.  D.)     The   Mammoth   Cave   of  Kentucky.     Paper. 

Svo.  50 

Bouquet  (H.)      The  Expedition  of,  against  the  Ohio  Indians  in 

1764,    etc.       With    Preface    by    Fi-ancis   Paikman,   Jr.      Svo. 

$3  00.     Large  Paper.  6  00 

BoYL.AND  (G.  II.,  M.  D.)     Six  Months  Under  the  Red  Cross  with 

the  French  Army  in  the  Franco-Prussian  War.     12mo.       1  50 


2  Historical  and  Miscellaneous  Publications  of 

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Brunxer   (A.  A.)      The  Gender  of    French    Verbs   Simplified. 

18mo.  25 

Burt  (Rev.  N.  G.,  D.  D.)  The  Far  East;  or,  Letters  from  Egypt 
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by  John  Nicolet,  with  a  Sketch  of  his  Life.     12mo.       In  press. 

Clark  (Col.  George  Rogers)  Sketches  of  his  Campaign  in  the 
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Coffin  (Levi)  The  Reminiscences  of  Levi  Coffin,  the  Reputed 
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the  Labors  of  a  Lifetime  in  behalf  of  the  Slave.  With  Stories 
of  Fugitive  Slaves,  etc.,  etc.     12rno.  2  00 

CoNSTiTUTiox  OF  THE  UxiTED  St.\tes,  Etc.  The  Declaration  of 
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tember 17,  1787;  the  Fifteen  Amendments  to  the  Constitution, 
and  .Index;  Washington's  Farewell  Address,  September  7,' 
1796.     8vo.     Paper.  25 

Craig  (N.  B.)  The  Olden  Time.  A  Monthly  Publication,  devoted 
to  the  Preservation  of  Documents  of  Early  History,  etc. 
Originally  Published  at  Pittsburg,  in  1846-47.  2  'vols' 
8vo.  10  00 

Drake  (D.)  Pioneer  Life  in  Kentucky.  Edited,  with  Notes 
and  a  Biographical  Sketch,  by  his  Son,  Hon.  Chas.  D.  Drake. 
8vo,     $3  00.     Large  paper.  6  00 

DuBreuil  (A.)  Vineyard  Culture  Improved  and  -Cheapened. 
Edited  by  Dr.  J.  A.  Warder.     12mo.  2  00 

Ellard  (Virginia  G.)  Grandma's  Christmas  Day.  Illus.  Sq. 
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"FiNLEY  (I.  J.)  and  Putnam  (R.)  Pioneer  Record  and  Remin- 
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Ohio.     8vo.  2  50 

Fletcher  (Wm.  B.,  M.  D.)  Cholera:  its  Characteristics,  History, 
Treatment,  etc.     8vo.     Paper.  1  00 

Force  (M.  F.)  Essays  :  Pre-HistoHc  Man— Darwinism  and  Deity 
— The  Mound  Builders.     8vo.     Paper.  75 


Bohert  Clarke  d-  Co.,  Cincumaii,  Ohio.  3 

Force  CM.  F.)  Some  Early  Notices  of  the  Indians  of  Ohio.  To 
What  Race  did  the  Mound  Builders  belong.    8vo.    Paper.      50 

Freeman  (Ellen.)  Manual  of  the  French  Verb,  to  accompany 
every  French  Course.     16mo.     Paper.  25 

Gallagher  (Wm.  D  )  Miami  Woods,  A  Golden  Wedding,  and 
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GlAUQUE  (F.)  The  Election  Laws  of  the  United  States:  with 
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Grimke  (F.)  Considerations  on  the  Nature  and  Tendency  of 
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Griswold(W.)  Kansas:  her  PLOsources  and  Develojaments;  or, 
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Groesreck  (W.  S.)  Gold  and  Silver.  Address  delivered  before 
the  American  Bankers'  Association,  in  New  York,  September 
13,  1878.     8vo.     Paper.  25 

Hall  (James.)  Legends  of  the  West.  Sketches  illustrative  of 
the  Habits,  Occupations,  Privations,  Adventures,  and  Sports 
of  the  Pioneers  of  the  West.     12mo.  2  00 

Hall  (James.)  Romance  of  Western  History;  or.  Sketches  of 
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Haxover  (M.  D.)  A  Practical  Treatise  on  the  Law  of  Horses, 
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and  otlier  Live  Stock  ;  the  Rule  as  to  Unsoundness  and  Vice, 
and  the  Responsibility  of  the  Proprietors  of  Livery,  Auction, 
and  Sale  Stables,  Inn-Keepers,  Veterinarj''  Surgeons,  and  Far- 
riers, Carriei-s,  etc.     8vo.  4  00 

Hart  (J.  M.)  A  Syllabus  of  Anglo-Saxon  Literature.  Svo. 
Paper.  50 

Ha.ssaurek  (F.)  The  Secret  of  the  Andes.  A  Romance. 
12mo.        .  I  50 

The  Same,  in  German.     Svo.     Paper,  50c. ;  cloth.  1  00 

Hassaurek  (F.)  Four  Years  Among  Sjsanish  Americans.  Third 
Edition.     12mo.  1  50 

Hatch  (Col.  W^  S.)  A  Chapter  in  the  History  of  the  W^ar  of 
1812,  in  the  Northwest,  embracing  the  Surrender  of  the 
Northwestern  Army  and  Fort,  at  Detroit,  August  16,  1813,  etc. 
18mo.  1  25 

Hayes  (Rutherford  B.)  The  Life,  Public  Services,  and  Select 
Speeches  of.  Edited  by  J.  Q.  Howard.  12mo.  Paper,  7«c. ; 
cloth,  1  25 

Hazex  (Gen.  W.  B.)  Our  Barren  Lands.  The  Interior  of  the 
United  States,  West  of  the  One-Hundredth  Meridian,  and 
East  of  the  Sierra  Nevada.     Svo.     Paper.  50 


4  liistoricol  and  21isceUaneous  Publications  of 

HpsHALL  (Dr.  James  A.)  Book  of  tlie  Black  Bass:  comprising 
Its  complete  Scientific  and  Life  Ilistorj^,  together  with  a  Prac- 
tical Treatise  on  Agling  and  Fly  Fishing,  and  a  full  description 
of  Tools,  Tackle,  and  Implements.     Illustrated.     I2mo.     3  00 

IIoRTON  (S.  Dana.)     Silver  and  Gold,  and  their  Relation  to  the 

Problem  of  liesumption.     8vo.  1  50 

IIoRTON  (S.  Dana.)     The  Monetary  Situation.     8vo.     Paper.     50 

IIousEKEEPixG  IN  THE  Blue  Grass.  A  New  and  Practical  Cook 
Book.  By  Ladies  of  the  Presbyterian  Church,  Paris,  Ky. 
12mo.     12th  thousand.  1  50 

Howe  (H.)  Historical  Collections  of  Ohio.  Containing  a  Col- 
lection of  the  most  Interesting  Facts,  Traditions,  Bio;iraphical 
Sketches,  Anecdotes,  etc.,  relating  to  its  Local  and" General 
History.     8vo.  6  00 

Hunt  (W.  E.)  Historical  Collections  of  Coshocton  County,  Ohio. 
Svo.  3  00 

Huston  (E.  G.)  Journey  in  Honduras,  and  Jottings  by  the  "Way. 
Inter-Oceanic  Railway.     Svo.     Paper.  50 

Jackson  (John  D.,  M.  D.)  The  Black  Arts  in  Medicine,  with 
an  Anniversary  Address.  Edited  by  Dr.  L.  S.  McMurtry. 
12mo.  1  00 

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from  Nature,  with  Descriptive  and  Scientific  Letterpress.  In 
40  parts,  $1  00  each ;  or,  2  vols.  Royal  4to.  Half  morocco, 
$50  00 ;   Full  morocco,  '  60  00 

Jordan  (D.  M.)  Rosemary  Leaves.  A  Collection  of  Poems. 
18mo.  1  50 

Keller  (M.  J.)  Elementary  Perspective,  explained  and  applied 
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King  (John.)  A  Commentary  on  the  Law  and  True  Construc- 
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King  (M.)     Pocket-Book  of  Cincinnati.     24mo.  15 

Kltppart  (J.  H.)    The  Principles  and  Practice  of  Land  Drainage. 

Illustrated.      12mo.  1  75 

Law  (J.)     Colonial   History  of   Vincennes,  Indiana,  under   the 

French,  British,  and  American  Governments.     12!no.         I  00 

Lloyd  (J.  U.)  The  Chemistry  of  Medicines.  Illus.  12mo.  Cloth, 
$2  75;  sheep,  3  25 

Longwoi:th(N.)  Electra.  Translated  from  the  Greek  of  Sopho- 
cles.    l2mo.  1  50 

McBride  (J.)  Pioneer  Biography:  Sketches  of  the  Lives  of  some 
of  the  Early  Settlers  of  Butler  County,  Ohio.  2  vols.  Svo. 
$6  50.     Large  paper.     Imp.     Svo.  13  00 


Robert  Clarke  d:  Co.,  Cinci/mati,  Ohio.  5 

McLaughlix  (M.  Louise.)  China  Painting.  A  Practical  Manual 
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Sq.     12mo.     Boards.  75 

McLaughlin  (M.  Louise.)  Pottery  Decoration :  being  a  Practical 
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the  author's  Mode  of  Painting  Enameled  Faience.  Sq.  12mo. 
Bds.  1  00 

MacLean  (J.  P.)  The  Mound  Builders,  and  an  Investigation  into 
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MacLeax  (J.  P.)  A  Manual  of  the  Antiquity  of  Man.  Illustrated. 
12mo.  1  GO 

MacLean  (J.  P.)  Mastodon,  Mammoth,  and  Man.  Illustrated. 
12mo.  60 

Mansfield  (E.  D.  )  Personal  Memories,  Social,  Political,  and 
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Manypenny  (G.  W.)  Our  Indian  Wards:  A  History  and  Dis- 
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Matthews  (Stanley.)  A  Summary  of  the  Law  of  Partnership. 
For  the  Use  of  Business  Men.     12mo.  1  25 

May  (Col.  J.)  Journal  and  Letters  of,  relative  to  Two  Journeys 
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Mette.nheimer  (li.  J.)  Safety  Book-keeping;  being  a  Complete 
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Minor  (T.  C,  M.  D.)  Child-Bed  Fever.  Erysipelas  and  Puer- 
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Minor  (T.  C,  M.  D.)    Scarlatina  Statistics  of  the  United  States. 

8vo.     Paper.  50 

Montana  Historical  Society.    Contributions.    Vol.1.    8vo.    3  00 

Morgan  (Appleton.)  The  Shakspearean  Myth;  or,  William 
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Nash  (Simeon.)      Crime  and  the  Family.     12mo.  1  25 

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Nichols  (G.  W.)  The  Cincinnati  Organ;  with  a  Brief  Descrip- 
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6  Historical  and  Miscellaneous  Publications  of 

with  Supplies  for  General  HuH.  2.  Expedition  of  Gov.  Meigs, 
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Poole  (W.  F.)  Anti-Slavery  Opinions  before  1800.  An  Essay. 
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Quick  (R.  H.)     Essays  on  Educational  Reformers.     12mo.  1  50 

Ranck  (G.  W.)  History  of  Lexington,  Kentucky.  Its  Early 
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Reemelin  (C.)  The^  Wine-Maker's  Manual.  A  Plain,  Practical 
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Reemelin  (C.)     A  Treatise  on  Politics  as  a  Science.     8vo.     1  50 

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Robert  (Karl).  Charcoal  Drawing  with  out  a  Master.  A  Com- 
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ton.      Illustrated.     Svo  1  00 

Roy  (George).  Generalship;  or,  How  I  Managed  my  Husband. 
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Roy  (George).  The  Art  of  Pleasing.  A  Lecture.  12mo. 
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BussELL  (Wm.)  Scientific  Horseshoeing  for  the  Diflferent  Dis- 
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Sheets  (Mary  R.)  My  Three  Angels:  Faith,  Hope,  and  Love. 
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Gilt.  5  00 

Skixxer  (J.  E.)  The  Source  of  Measures.  A  Key  to  the  Hebrew- 
Egyptian  Mystery  in  the  Source  of  Measures,  etc.     8vo.      5  00 

Smith  (Col.  James).  A  Reprint  of  an  Account  of  the  Remark- 
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Stanton  (H.)    Jacob  Brown  and  other  Poems.     12mo.  1  50 

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Strauch  (A.)  Spring  Grove  Cemetery,  Cincinnati:  its  History 
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Studer  (J.  H.)  Columbus,  Ohio:  its  History,  Resources,  and  Pro- 
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Taxeyhii.l  (R.  H.)  The  Leatherwood  God:  an  account  of  the 
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Ten  Brook  (A.)  American  State  Universities.  Their  Origin  and 
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the  University  of  Michigan,  and  Hints  toward  the  future 
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TiLPEN  (Louise  W.)  Karl  and  Gretchen's  Christmas.  Illustrated. 
Square  12mo.  75 

Tir.nEN  (Louise  W.)  Poem,  Hymn,  and  Mission  Band  Exercises. 
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Trext  (Capt.  AVm.)  Journal  of,  from  Logstown  to  Pickawillany, 
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8  Historical  and  Miscellaneous  Publications. 

Tripler  (C.  S.,  M.D.)  and  Blackman  (G.  C,  M.D.)  Handbook  for 
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Tyler  Davidson  Fountain.  History  and  Description  of  the 
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